


The strange return of Janine Melnitz

by TheMusicalCC



Category: Ghostbusters (Comics), Ghostbusters (Movies 1984-1989)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, Dracula Influence/References, Energetic Vampirism, Eventual kissing, F/M, Gets really cheesy at parts, It's mostly just altogether weirdness but hopefully still has funny parts?, Mind Link, Mystery, Partial Mind Control, Rituals, Runes, Uh there's a funeral?, dark entities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-04-23 10:59:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14331030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMusicalCC/pseuds/TheMusicalCC
Summary: Alternative timeline where Janine DID fall through the veil during 'What in Samhain just happened?'





	1. Prologue

It took him a moment to realize the constant pounding sound came from his own hands against the stone, and the pain in his knuckles, when it came, was numb and distant.

“-gon-! Egon, stop! This isn’t helping!”

“She’s gone- come on, man, she’s gone! You aren’t helping her like this!”

Winston and Ray pulled him back by the arms. Somewhere at his back, Peter was screaming curses at Lester. His ears were ringing and his chest heaved, and Ray’s hand on his shoulder was shaking. He realized he was, too. Trembling with rage, feeling like he might blow up, fighting the urge to kick and punch at the stupid, _stupid_ wall and make it crumble. Or Lester. Good God, he’d just stood there and watched it happen, why hadn’t he done anything? Why hadn’t he helped her? Why-?

No, Lester wasn’t to blame, not entirely at least. Neither was the wall. The wall wasn’t the real reason he’d just probably cracked a finger bone against stone. His hands were to blame. Stupid, stupid, _useless_ hands. He tightened his fists, feeling a sickened delight at the pain it caused him. He felt Winston move away and turned to find him restricting Peter from doing just what he’d been wishing seconds before, beating Lester to a pulp. The man, still unharmed, looked like the discovery that his actions had consequences wasn't very welcome by him.

“-if you’d forgotten about your goddamn TV show for two _fucking_ seconds and helped her, she would still be here!” Peter was bellowing, fighting Winston’s restrain, looking like he would set himself free. Egon rushed to his side to restrain him as well.

“This is futile, Venkman” he said, his voice still a bit quivery for his own taste “Beating Lester up won’t be any good for Janine”

“Yeah, but it’d make me feel so much better!" Peter growled, a fistful of Lester’s suit still clutched tightly.

“We don’t have time for this, we gotta figure how to get her back!” Ray said, trying to sound reasonable, but sounding pleading “Egon, we need more data, scan the spot again, see what’s changed from where the wall was open!”

Oh. Right. Of course. He rushed back to the spot and scanned the stone with the PKE meter, but aside from a weird little spike that was most likely residual, it wasn’t anything unlike the rest of the stones in the world. Frustration rose within him and he had to remind himself that he wouldn’t be any good if he didn’t focus.

There had to be a way. Janine couldn’t be gone.

He had to bring her back somehow.


	2. Huron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so Janine fell into a wall. What's next?

She blinked owlishly and got to her feet...rather, she tried but her legs felt wobbly.

“The hell...” Janine muttered, and tried again. The proton pack suddenly felt thrice as heavy as it had been just a while before, so she unclasped it from her waist and slid the straps off. Her back hurt like a mother.

“Egon?” she grimaced, immediately regretting asking for him first, even if he had been the one closer to her last she’d seen. Where had all the lights gone all of a sudden? She supported herself on the wall with her back and her arms, finally managing to get to her feet. “Guys?” she couldn’t hear anything but her own breath and steps. Something was fishy. Not even in their more discreet cases had the Ghostbusters known how to avoid being noisy “Guys? Lester?”

Even her voice sounded weak and strange in her ears. Had she fainted? Oh, man, they were _so_ not gonna let her live that one down. Her boot stubbed on something and she felt for it with a muttered curse. The stairs! Up she went, supporting herself on the wall to keep her legs from giving out.

“Guys? Anybody!”

A part of her brain registered that the library was different, but she couldn’t quite catch what it was. If only her eyes would adjust to the dark! But no, she had to content with feeling her way out of it and into the mansion’s ballroom, as silent and deserted as the basement. The nibbling fear that they had just decided to leave her behind settled in her stomach for a second, but she shooed it away immediately. They wouldn’t, not her guys. Something else was going on here. Janine tried to hurry her step, but her body felt heavy and quivery. Deep breaths, one step at a time... really, what _had_ happened to her? Finally, she reached the door and pulled it open.

The main hall was nicely lit, which was a relief for her, although it meant her eyes, barely getting adjusted to the dark, were abruptly trying to adjust to light instead now. She could see the pale line of a crack on one of her lenses. Oh, joy, she’d have to replace them. Well, if Lester DID pay what he was supposed to pay, then she- _Lester!_ Where had the old weasel ran off to? She listened intently for signs of the party, but judging by the silence, the old coot had been forced to finish it early. Hah! Served him right.

But where had everyone gone off to, then? She could hear voices not far from her, on a room to her left. Had the guys really gone to discuss payment with Lester, leaving her on the basement by herself? She couldn’t help but frown at the thought.

She made her way towards the noise and didn’t bother to cover her annoyance when Artie Lester came to view, discussing something or other with his butler, sitting comfortably on his expensive sofa without a care in the world, a glass of something on the rocks tinkling between his fingers.

“ _You_ ” she hissed, her voice hoarse and not as loud as she would have liked, both men turned to look at her with equally bewildered expressions as she pointed at Lester, glaring at him. Hell, even her mouth seemed to move too slow for her liking, what was going on with her? “You scurry little _sonova_ -!”

“Don’t hurt me!” he got to his feet and raised his hands as if to shield himself from her, his voice high-pitched and whinny “It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t know-! Oh, please don’t hurt me-!”

“You shoulda thought of that before!” she huffed, as he went and hid behind the butler, who was still trying to pick his jaw up “When I get my hands on you-!”

“No. _Nooo_!” with a bawl more fitting of an infant than a man that age, Lester all but fled the scene. His butler took one look at Janine, who was just noticing how pale and truly frightened both men looked, and followed suit. She blinked, frozen in place by confusion. What the _hell_?!

* * *

On his part, Artie Lester’s head was a haze of panic. He ran as fast as his old legs allowed until he reached the opposite corner of the mansion, where he locked himself, ignoring his butler’s pleas for sanctuary. With trembling hands, he took his phone.

“Get me the ghostbusters!”

* * *

_Rrrring!_

“Not it” Ray was struggling with a stubborn screw that refused to come out from the machine he was working on.

“Not it!” called Winston from beneath Ecto-1.

Egon, upstairs, couldn’t say anything on the account that he was too busy to even notice the phone, which, in turn, exempted him from ‘Being it’. With a groan, Peter got up from his desk and his very important task of drawing horns and mustaches on a photograph of Walter Peck published by the newspaper, and answered the phone.

“Ghostbusters” he called out in sing-song. His expression soured almost immediately “Lester?!” at the sound of that name, Ray finally looked up from his work, scowling.

“What does _he_ want?” he muttered.

“Yeah- Ray wants to know what _you_ want. I thought you’d gotten a warrant to-! _What_?!” his tone alone made both Ray and Winston bunch to him, as though trying to catch word from what Lester was saying on the other side of the line. Peter’s face had gone pale “Say that again”

He listened in an unusual silence for a few seconds and then his scowl deepened.

“Are you _sure_?!”

“What is it?” Ray asked. Peter lifted a hand, asking him to wait.

“Well, we’d _love_ to help, Artie, but you see, you did make a number demanding we would be kept away from you and your estates, so...” the voice on the other end was frantic “I see. Well, if you’re feeling so generous, how could we say no? Hang on to your shorts, wrinkly, we’re on our way”

He hung up, his expression unusually severe.

“Call Egon”

“Do we have to?” Winston made a face, knowing that Egon wouldn’t be happy to be taken from his lab for anything, particularly Artie Lester.

“Trust me, he’s going to wanna hear this one”

* * *

Something was wrong.

Well, duh. For starters, her hair was longer. She noticed when she ran a hand through it, having registered the bangs that fell over her eyes as just hair that had gotten into her face initially. Longer. Some good two inches, probably. Then, her car wasn’t where she’d left it, there was no trace of the halloween decorations and the guys weren’t anywhere either. The place was empty. Then there was this weakness that had Janine leaning onto furniture to _breathe_ every five minutes and the strumming of her leg muscles, as though she’d run a marathon, just after a short while walking. Janine rubbed her eyelids, not entirely surprised when she removed her hand and found no traces of makeup. Something had definitely happened and she thought she had a pretty good idea of what, even if the thought made her both angry enough to break everything and sad enough to lie down and cry. Doing either of those options wouldn’t help her in this case, she feared. What _could_ she do?

They were on their way, she realized. They were coming to get her. How did she know? She just did. Oh, of course.

She sat on the front steps, her heart hammering in her ears, and waited.

Eventually, Ecto-1 came into view, sirens blaring, lights on. Part of her wanted to dash towards it, towards them, part of her ordered her to stay were she was, maybe even try to run. She scoffed to herself, run with these jelly legs? Not happening. Ecto-1 parked in front of her, the lights blinding her, and Winston came out. He was staring at her like she’d sprouted a second head.

“So the old ratbag called you guys?” she asked, a hint of amusement in her voice. Ray emerged from the other front door, a blanket in his hands, and soon Peter and Egon did from the back of the car, tinkering with his meter “Well, break it to me gently, boys, am I a ghost?”

Silence stretched between them. Three sets of eyes set on her in such a way that had her wondering if they knew who she was. Well, good ol’ Sam had turned into some sort of bizarre jack’o’lantern, so maybe it was just a ghost thing. An...occupational hazard, as it were. Oh, God, had they even recognized her? She eyed her gloved hands, thinking they looked very solid, very similar to how they’d looked on halloween night, but also conscious that in some cases, the ghosts weren’t aware of their own passing. Ray had ranted to her about it a couple of times. Really, she ought to have paid more attention...

“No” came Egon’s voice, his eyes set on his meter, his voice somewhat strained. Her heart gave a surprised leap. He took a deep breath before continuing “She’s alive”

“Oh, thank God” Ray said, making his way towards her. Janine couldn’t quite believe what Egon had said until the blanket and Ray’s arms fell around her -solid. She was solid!- and she realized she’d been trembling. Winston approached too, but kept his distance.

“Ray, let her breathe, man. This...whatever it was couldn’t have been easy on her”

Peter was hanging out in the back with Egon, muttering. Egon’s expression was unreadable.

“Sorry! Sorry” Ray released her, both hands on her shoulders, looking at her intently. Well, if she was alive, she still probably looked like crap. Winston clapped her on the back softly once, smiling timidly.

“Welcome back” he glanced at her back, seemed to remember she had been wearing a proton pack and clapped her back softly again “Be right back, gonna get our stuff”

“OK, so I’m not dead” she said, sounding a bit unconvinced still, as Winston walked away “Anyone mind telling me what the _heck_ just happened, then?”

“You don’t remember?” Peter asked. She didn’t like the look he was giving her one bit. It was the same narrowed-eye glance he usually reserved for door-to-door salesmen “ ’cause that’s one hell of a big coincidence”

“Last I remember” Janine retorted in the same tone “I was stuck to a wall and you guys were making a fuzz, and Sam-” she cut herself “Oh, no, did you guys get Sam?”

“The entity?” Egon raised an eyebrow.

“Sam Hein! Don’t tell me you got him!” the four of them exchanged a glance. Peter’s expression softened and he finally seemed to look over her without suspicion. 

“Nah. When the smoke cleared up he was gone...I guess he figured he'd done enough harm”

"We theorize him to be dormant" Egon cleared.

“Oh, good” she breathed. Ray helped her to her feet, and the fact that she could feel the warmth of his body was what convinced her. Alive. She was alive. She smiled, despite herself.

“Can you walk?” Egon asked, eyes still set on the meter, his brow furrowed in a manner that told her he wasn’t really going to pay attention to her reply.

“I’m a bit wobbly, since you asked” she said, nonetheless, because she was still too glad to be alive to let anything really bother her. Ray supported her all the way to the car. Peter opened the backseat door for her. Whatever he’d been thinking, he’d thrown it out of his mind already.

“Get in there, Melnitz” he said, smiling back at her “Good to have you back"

* * *

Alright, having Ray and Winston fuzz over her on the way back? Fun. Having Peter try a bit too hard to banter with her as usual? Touching and fun. Finding out they’d gotten Ray’s employee, a kid that looked like Wynona Ryder in Beetlejuice, to do her job while she was out? _Hilarious_.

Having Egon insist on running tests on her as soon as they were in the firehouse? Not fun.

“So” Janine said, once she’d been prodded at enough for one night and he’d allowed her to sit calmly with the blanket over her shoulders.

“So” he mimicked, inviting her to elaborate, looking at the readings in one of his machines.

“Anything interesting yet?”

He finished looking at squiggly lines and scribbled something down.

“You’re thinner” after a short pause, he added, feeling the weight of her glare “ _Ahem_. That is, you experienced a mass loss similar to that of patients in bed rest”

 _Leave it to Egon Spengler to notice a girl’s lost weight only when linked to ghosts_ , Janine thought, stealing a glance to the bony knuckles and flaking nail polish of her left hand.

“Shouldn’t I be in a hospital, then?” his movements paused for a second. She could have sworn he’d started “Although- oh, this can’t be easy to explain from a medical point of view”

“Are you in pain?” he asked, looking over her as though the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“Not really, but just _standing_ up was too much work”

“The muscle mass was affected” he nodded and scribbled some more, muttering to himself “I _would_ like a blood test”

“Buy her a coffee first at least, geez” Peter dropped, coming into the lab to hand Janine a cup of tea, Ray close behind him with a cup of his own. Egon ignored him “Hey, Janine, Ray’s dying to know-”

“Oh, c’mon, I _could_ wait!” Ray turned slightly pink.

“What does going through dimensions feel like?”

“I couldn’t tell you” she lifted her glasses out of her face -or else on top of being cracked, they’d be foggy- to drink.

“How much _do_ you remember?” Ray asked.

“Like I said, being stuck to that wall like a fly on paper and you guys making an entrance” she replied between sips. The tea was too sweet for her taste but the warmth flooded her from head to toe comfortingly “Egon was saying something about a ‘Soft spot’ and Lester was having _wayyyy_ too good a time with it all”

“And then?”

She made a face.

“I think...something about bells? Peter was yelling...that’s about it” Peter and Ray exchanged a glance “Stop. Stop it with the glances. What happened?”

They looked at Egon’s back, but said nothing.

“I was supposed to pull you out before midnight” he said, all eyes on him “I failed”

Oh. _Oh_. He’d been instructing her to let go of the thrower, yes, and taken her hand, and--

“I slipped” he finished. His tone was even, but he wasn’t looking at them. For once, his hands had gone still over the desk. She frantically searched for something to say, but Peter beat her to it.

“We’ve gone over this. It was all Lester’s fault. He should have done something instead of just stand there and record everything”

Egon didn’t reply, but he slowly resumed his tinkering. Janine fleetingly wondered if he truly believed what Peter had said.

“Well, in any case, you’re back now” Ray rushed, trying to break the tense atmosphere “I mean- we had been experimenting, trying to get any kind of clue of how to open the wall again, but it was getting us nowhere so far, we’d begun thinking...” he trailed off, realizing this wasn’t a very good topic either “Well, all’s well ends well, you managed to come back on your own, so-”

“Wait” Janine said “Just one thing. I knew right away it isn’t Halloween anymore, but what day is today?”

This time Egon did turn around, his face sporting an expression that was almost comical _. 'Busted!'_ It seemed to scream. Ray looked chagrined. Peter was the only one who managed to keep a straight face as he sentenced:

“Told you she’d end up finding out” 

“What day is today?” Janine repeated firmly “The leaves aren’t brown anymore, there’s no snow. Egon and Ray have been doing experiments, _multiple_ experiments, enough experiments to start wondering if it was pointless!” Ray looked at Egon sheepishly “Just- how long _was_ I in there, anyway?”

The three of them looked at her and then each other. Egon was the one to finally cave in.

“Today is april the thirtieth- or rather” he checked the clock hanging on the wall “May the first”

Six _months_. Oh, it was like getting a punch to the gut. She sucked in a breath and bent forward, resting her elbows over her legs, hiding her face in her hands.

“...well, that blows” she muttered, her voice hoarse. Because, really, that summed it up pretty well. They didn’t reply. There wasn’t much they could say, either way. Ray took a hesitant step towards her.

“I’m so sorry, we should have found a way earlier-”

“Stop that” she snapped, eyes still closed and covered “I’m not looking for culprits, I don’t want you guys to blame yourselves, I just-” she breathed “Just let me feel crappy about it for a moment, OK? I’ll get better soon, I promise, just...”

She breathed out and then in, shaking. Winston chose that moment to come in. He took one look at their faces and guessed what was going on, shoulders sagging.

“You told’er, huh?”

“She guessed it” Peter corrected. Winston went to her a placed a hand over her back, drawing circles with his palm, and said nothing for a while.

“Tell me” she finally muttered. Winston breathed in and began to speak. He did his best to do it with delicacy, to make the words feel less like a burden on her; too bad she could never remember them or the questions she made as he spoke. Only the answers, the information stuck to the mush that her brain had become: She’d been declared missing. Months ago, practically the week following Halloween. No, the guys weren’t in trouble for it, there was footage of what had actually happened. No, that didn’t mean they’d come out smelling like roses, but Lester had much worse. Yes, her family had been shaken to say the least. Yes, they had told them what had really happened. No, not all of them had really believed it, and no, they hadn’t been comforted in the slightest about Ray’s assurance that they were looking for a way to bring her back. Yes, some had considered it a possibility that after three months missing and in such ...particular circumnstances, she’d be dead. No- no them. Not ever. Winston said this a bit too quickly and Ray averted his eyes when she looked to him for confirmation.

No, they hadn’t been the ones to bring her back.

No, they didn’t know how or why she was back.

No, they didn’t know how she could still be alive.

Suddenly, the room had become heavy.

“...Egon, you got enough data?” Winston asked, placing both hands on her shoulders and squeezing lightly. Egon looked at him with his brow furrowed “Can she at least get a shower now?”

“Ah...yes, of course” Egon mumbled, looking back at his numbers somewhat sheepishly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...if you thought I was gonna spend chapters having everyone mope, I apologize, but it's not really my style. This is as mopey as I could get without feeling like an angst-dependent fraud.
> 
> So, Janine's back! Scratch that one from the title. Things are barely starting to get strange, though, if you could believe that.
> 
> Title references to the Loreena Mckennitt song by the same title.
> 
> Next update on 08/05/2018


	3. Here I come, but I ain't the same

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janine's back from a six-month-long trip to another dimension. This is gonna be a hard one to explain...

The shower did help her feel better, even if by the time Janine was done there was more hair on the drain than she’d ever been comfortable with and her legs felt almost too tired to keep her standing. Well, six months, it was to be expected. Still, it made her feel way too antsy, particularly after having seen the way her ribs protruded with her own eyes. She felt like a walking ruin.

Peter had left her a pair of men’s pajamas, probably his, in exchange of the clothes she’d been wearing, and she lost no time getting into them. They were as cozy as they looked and though she wasn’t a big fan of baggy clothes, in this case, the fact that she couldn’t look at the outline of her body was comforting. He’d even left her a pair of warm slippers to wear around the firehouse, so she donned them, brushed her hair and looked at herself in the mirror until she was more or less able to convince herself the person she was looking at was herself. Then, she made her way to the kitchen -slowly, it was really the only speed her legs allowed her- to find Walter Peck in what seemed to be his pajamas and a robe yelling his heart out at the Ghostbusters.

“-the absolute most _stupid_ thing you could have possibly done!” Peck was barking, his face red, his teeth bared. They weren’t really fazed by it, or so Janine thought. Egon was even absently chewing on a granola bar, his eyes set on his calculator “ _Why_ didn’t you call me _sooner?!_ I should have been notified to this as soon as she decided to re-materialize! You should have called me before you climbed into that _joke_ of a car of yours and-!””

“Sometimes I fantasize that he’ll just run out of air while yelling and drop dead” Peter muttered, having slid to Janine’s side while she was too focused on convincing herself that yes, this was happening. He slid an arm under hers, supporting her, perhaps noticing how shaky her legs were at this point, and she threw him a thankful glance. His words albeit being about as loud as the dropping of a pin, made Peck look away from the other three and to them. His eyes set on her and she saw something in his face that wasn’t quite sympathy or pity; rather, it was as though he’d been expecting a certain degree of damage but not quite as bad as this, in the most calculating way possible. Self-consciousness and annoyance flared within her.

“Has anyone seen her besides you four?” Peck said in a calmer tone, straightening his spine and his clothes. Janine scowled at him.

“Yeah, along with bigfoot on a home video, you got a problem with that?”

“Lester reported her, _ahem_ , apparition in his mansion, so him” Ray said, not without a hint of amusement and, oh. _Oh_ , so that was why he’d been so scared to see her, Janine realized. Had he thought her vengeful ghost had come back to torment him for having just stood and watched her die? Huh. She wouldn’t have thought a man like Lester would have a conscience, but, apparently he did.

“Lester won’t be telling anyone what he saw, not in his position” Peter coaxed Janine onto the nearest chair “Tabloids are still saying he’s got Janine’s body in a fridge somewhere”

“The same tabloids that tomorrow might be telling the thrilling tale of how you pulled a stunt involving your secretary’s ‘Disappearance’ to sullen Lester’s good name” Peck retorted, his tone tinged with mock patience he clearly didn’t have.

“He’s a reality TV producer, I don’t think he even has a good name we can sullen-” Janine muttered.

“That is _rich_ , Miss Melnitz- but, I really am _not_ in the mood for this. Your employers should have called _me_ first thing even before driving to Lester’s mansion to save you the cab fare” he set his eyes on Winston, perhaps thinking he was, after all, the most reasonable one “Did you even _think_ it through before doing that? Violating a restraining order?”

“ _He_ called _us_ , genius” Peter intervened.

“We’ve got his call registered. We can prove he breached the restraining order before we did” Winston nodded. This seemed to ease Peck a bit, but not completely “Our prime concern now is Janine’s situation”

“Take her to the police” he said in the tone of who says something obvious. Peter scowled. Even Egon looked up from his calculations, an eyebrow cocked “Not right away, of course, I will have to get on the phone with Mr. Lester’s lawyer to negotiate before that”

“Negotiate _what_ exactly?” Janine hissed.

“What you’re going to say to the police, of course. As Mr. Venkman has so eloquently pointed out, Mr. Lester has been accused of having murdered you to cover the prior murder of Sam Hain and fabricated the story about people falling into another dimension to cover his tracks. Telling anyone that the Ghostbusters found you in...” he motioned to her vaguely “ _In this_ state inside the Lester mansion, could lead to suspicion that he’d held you captive. I don’t think he’d like that”

“I can’t say I care about what he’d like” she retorted, hugging herself. Peck pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing out.

“Miss Melnitz, might I remind you that on Halloween night, _you_ went behind your employees’ backs to deal with Lester’s problem? I’ve seen better cases lost to lesser technicalities than that. If I had no doubt that we could win, perhaps we could afford accusing a man for a crime you know he did not commit just to soothe your sense of revenge-”

“And you’d know about that kind of thing, wouldn’t you, Pecker-?” Peter said in a mock-sweet tone.

“But the way I see it” Peck continued, speaking over him, unable to hide a flare of anger at the comment, probably aggravated by both the knowledge that the reproach was absolutely earned and the fact that this was Venkman, of all people, making it “Both sides are at fault here, and both sides would benefit from an agreement”

“How long should we wait, then?” Ray cut in, appeasing “The longer we wait, the worse it will look”

“You have a point there” Peck conceded, pondering on it. He checked his watch “Right now it’s 4 am. Give me ten- no, eleven hours. I will be sure to tell Mr. Lester and his attorney how urgent the matter is” he turned his back on them, walking towards the stairs, gears in his head already turning “In the meantime, I would advice _absolute_ discretion-” he paused mid-stride, glanced over at Janine, an unsettlingly softer expression washing over his features, close enough to actual sympathy that Janine couldn’t find it within herself to be annoyed by it “Welcome back, Miss Melnitz...” and added, as he disappeared from sight “Christ, feed her something, she looks terrible!”

Peter had the decency of waiting until he was gone to declare, matter-of-factly:

“Charmer”

“Anyone care to explain what the _heck_ Peck was doing in here?” Janine hissed, eyeing Peter, somehow sure it was his fault somehow “And why _he’s_ getting to decide what we do about this whole matter?”

She’d been toying with the idea of being the one to call her mother to let her know she was OK and now, seemingly, it was off the table. It made her furious, even through the haze of exhaustion and overwhelmed numbness that had come over her.

“Yyyyeah, Winston? Care to explain this to her? I don’t speak lawyer”

“Short version is...we work together now” Winston said, half-apologetical.

“You’re kidding” she deadpanned. He made a face that made it clear he _wished_ it were the case “...oh, crap. _Noooonononono_. I quit”

“Hah, nice try. But if we’re stuck with Peck, then so are you”

She hummed amusedly at that, despite herself. Peter looked at the clock.

“Well, you got a big day ahead of you, so Dr. Venkman prescribes you some grub and lots of sleep. Get on with it”

“You can take my bed” Egon said, his eyes back on the calculator.

“ _Of course she can_ ”

“There is one aspect of these readings that bothers me” he continued, ignoring Peter as he made his way for the stairs leading to his lab “It might take me all night- I will need the table”

“Something wrong?” she asked, because when something bothered Egon, chances were it was all going to go to heck real soon.

“I haven’t determined that yet” he said before disappearing into the next floor. She huffed.

“Would it have killed him to say ‘No’?” Winston groaned, seeming as annoyed as her.

“He’s just trying to be as thorough as possible” Ray excused him, putting his hands in his pockets and trying to look anywhere but Janine’s direction. Hiding something, she realized, or …more exactly, trying to keep himself from saying something in particular, something he didn’t think was right for her to know. She remembered the way Egon’s hands had gone still over the desk while he said it had been his fault and an uneasy void settled in her stomach.

Ray made them all sit down and eat some cereal. Janine didn’t feel particularly hungry and thought even something like cereal wasn’t a good idea at around 2 am, but she ate what little her stomach allowed and then felt so groggy that her body was almost impossibly heavy. Ray helped her up the stairs and onto Egon’s bed just as Egon headed down, his arms full of papers.

If she’d thought that having been in a -probably?- unconscious state for the past months would make it hard for her to fall asleep, she was proven wrong. She was asleep the minute her head fell on the pillow

* * *

Somewhere in the dark of the basement where Sam Hein had tried his last illusion, a dim light could be seen between the junctures of two stones, like a thread of firelight.

* * *

 

A couple of hours later she woke with a slight gasp feeling as though she hadn’t been breathing until then. It was an unnerving thought, to say the least. The outside light was still gray and indecisive, and the air was chilly. She shivered and discovered she could lay still no longer, slowly getting to her feet.

The kitchen light was on, despite the fact that it was close to not being necessary anymore. Egon, hunched over a small puddle of papers, looked barely awake, but his eyes still scanned over the data absently, almost mechanically. So used to him not noticing her, she was surprised that he actually looked up when she took a seat on the opposite side of the table.

“Anything definite yet?” she muttered, trying not to betray how awkward she felt under his eyes- normally she would have been thrilled that he stopped looking at papers to look at her, but what was normal about this whole thing, anyway?

“Not sure” he rubbed his eyelids under his glasses before turning back to his work “I might need more tests, if that’s alright with you”

“I can’t exactly refuse, so, sure” she nudged a sheet closer to herself to examine. She’d eventually learned to interpret some of the techno-babble and scales Egon and Ray used for work, but this looked like nothing she’d learned yet and she put it back where it was with a sigh, only to turn her eyes to Egon instead. He looked exhausted, she realized...well, he always did. That weird sleep thing he did was taking a toll on him, that polyphasic cycle or whatever. It was a smart-people thing, apparently, but to her it sounded like those diets consisting of only milkshakes, anything but smart.

It occurred to her that maybe that wasn’t quite it when he looked at her again, somewhat sheepish.

“You blamed yourself, didn’t you?” she asked, remembering a bit too late that this was one of the biggest no-no’s when dealing with Egon; trying to get him to talk about how he felt. He adjusted his glasses, training his expression back to normal and his eyes on his hands.

“It was my mistake that resulted on your current predicament”

“You didn’t mean for this to happen” she thumbed the flaky paint on her nails.

"Intention and outcome are two different things"

“You tried to pull me out, it didn’t work. Could’ave happened to anyone”

“It happened to _me_ ” he stated, making it sound a bit as though it had affected him more than it did her and annoyance boiled within her.

“Believe it or not, you _can_ also make mistakes” he pursed his mouth, eyes still set on his hands. Ah, there it was, the usual reaction she got whenever she cornered him. Well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t expected it. She began to get to her feet, only to realize her legs had quite literally, given up, when she fell back onto the seat with an undignified ‘ _Oof_ ’. That made him look at her again “Crap”

“You should be resting” he said, as though he’d just realized it.

“Don’t you think I _tried_?”

“Is...is everything OK?”

“I don’t know” she went to run her hand through her hair but paused with her fingers tangled in strands that were inches longer than they were supposed to be. She gritted her teeth and reminded herself not to pull on it “I’m… I’m alive, aren’t I? That should suffice”

“You don’t sound convinced”

She looked at him and absently toyed with the idea of telling him exactly how she felt. That there was a foreboding feeling plaguing her since she opened her eyes, that something was most definitely wrong with her even if she wasn’t sure what. In the end, she kept quiet for a reason she couldn’t quite identify. Egon breathed out through his nose, looking like he didn’t know what to say. Big shock.

“Coffee?” he offered, getting to his feet. She nodded as he moved for the mugs and the coffee maker. The minute he spent pouring, she spent it eyeing the papers. Where had he even gotten that much data? Unless he were comparing what he’d previously had on her. She knew he loved his scanner and running it over people at any given chance. And if it was the case…

“Did something change?” she asked when he came to hand her the cup "Between the last time you scanned me and now, that is" He sat across her and set eyes on the papers again as he spoke.

“There is a slight peak on the energy levels” he muttered, almost as if he didn’t realize he was doing it.

“Is that bad?” she asked between sips.

“It’s still early to know. It could be a radioactivity residue”

“That’s reassuring”

“Nothing significant”

“I’ll remember that when I’m growing an eye out of my navel”

“Unlikely”

“But not impossible?”

His mouth twitched a bit. She couldn’t tell if it was annoyance or amusement. It dawned on her that this was the first real conversation they'd had in a while- even without counting the six months of her disappearance. Back when she'd first started working with the Ghostbusters, she had always felt comfortable talking to Egon and he seemed comfortable talking to her as well after a while. Then, it had all gone to heck for reasons she herself wasn't quite sure of, and they'd all but ignored and avoided each other like the plague. After the Vigo incident, however, and perhaps because things were going back to how they'd originally been around them, they had precariously tried and get back to the effortless, merry friendship of their first times. It had worked, she guessed, save for the fact that they both seemed to be afraid of crossing some sort of line neither of them could truly see.

This was the first time in... probably years where said line seemed to have been forgotten. _All it took was to be presumed dead for a couple of months. Perhaps I should do it more often. Harr, harr, harr_.

“It somewhat resembles the kind of energy levels I detected on both Ray and Oscar Wallace after the Vigo case” Egon muttered to himself, still loud enough for her to catch, and eyed her with badly concealed wariness. Oh, _Lord_. She leaned back on the chair, holding his gaze.

“Was that what Peter feared back in the mansion? The reason he was suspicious?” she asked. His eyebrows shot up at that.

“It was” the question was left unsaid. _But how do you know that?_ Heck if she knew, she just _did_. She took a big gulp from her coffee and discovered that she felt even more sleepy. Had they gotten decaf while she was gone or something?

"So" she said finally, putting down the half-empty cup.

"So" he said back.

"Am I possessed or something like that?" she leaned on her hand, trying to sound casual but not quite hiding the nervousness in her tone.

"Most of the tests I ran on you a while ago would have revealed it if it were the case" he said calmly. He was hiding something, she could tell, but all of a sudden, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She finished the last of her coffee and put down the cup, over-whelmed by the sensation that she couldn’t stay there anymore, that she didn’t want to talk or listen anymore. She felt like a cornered animal and couldn't even calm down enough to try and figure why.

“Well, be sure to tell me if it’s the case before I start spinning my head and stuff” she retorted, starting to get to her feet with care.

“Do you need help?” he asked, eyes set on the papers as if she could have any doubt that she’d lost his attention. A pang of annoyance hit her, but she was mostly relieved. Suddenly, she was sure that if Egon touched her, she might scratch his eyes.

“Nah, gotta get the hang of it again” she said, averting her face, mildly alarmed “Goodnight, Egon. Try to sleep at least a couple of hours, OK?”

He didn’t reply, absorbed into the data before him yet again.

* * *

 

Peck, showed up one hour too early, seeming triumphant, and they set off for the police station, Janine wrapped in Peter’s old university sportswear. Much to his credit, Peck kept the ‘Official’ version very close to the actual truth, simply eliminating the more incriminating parts on both sides and managing to make everything pass for a simple accident. The police was content enough, and even a bit relieved that this matter was over with- there had been some debate as to whether she was to be declared legally dead for the past months, and only the Ghostbuster’s adamant declarations that it. They simply demanded her to be taken to a hospital and looked at by a doctor -“ _An ACTUAL doctor, Mr. Venkman_ ” Peck smirked when Peter tried to protest- and assured they would notify the family. Lester’s lawyer and Peck shook hands, seeming way too pleased with themselves about something that solved itself practically without their participation. Janine was taken to a hospital.

Her afternoon went by between tests and prodding and questions far worse than anything Egon could come up with, and the diagnosis was that she suffered from some deficiencies related to malnutrition.

“How’s your appetite, Miss Melnitz?” Doctor Da Silva asked near the end of the interview, biting on the end of her pen pensively. Janine remembered the oatmeal Ray had given her earlier, which she’d only eaten because he seemed overly anxious about it, and shrugged a bit.

“Ooh. Not good” Dr. Da Silva scribbled something. Janine briefly wondered if she’d just written ‘ _Appetite=Shrug’_ and had to suppress a smile. “Not a good sign. Perhaps your system is a bit depressed? You _have_ been through quite the shock after all. You need to eat to get better, Miss Melnitz. Recover what six months took from you. Give the old machine some fuel”

‘ _Well, duh, I could have told them that_ ’ she thought, eyeing the list of vitamins and recommendations they handed her as Ray kept his arm around her and helped her out the hospital doors.

Da Silva had, however, forgotten to explain to her why she was still alive after fasting for six months. Most likely because she didn't know either.

Reporters flocked to them and Peter immediately stepped forward, shielding her from prying eyes, quick-witted and sharp-tongued. Winston was waiting for them inside a cab, seeming more uncomfortable than ever with the attention. She didn’t mind it as much as she should though and thought next to nothing of it. The minute she was inside the car, her head fell on Winston’s shoulder and she was fast asleep. She barely awakened when they arrived to the firehouse and barely remembered being led to the couch and laying down.

She remembered dreaming, thought.

Egon’s unreadable expression as he ranted about something or other, his hand reaching for her and grabbing onto her wrist briefly and then _slipping_. Falling. A clock somewhere tolling midnight bells.

A pair of bright orange eyes in the dark.

The next thing she knew, she was wide awake, the sun setting outside and she could hear talking coming from the kitchen. Her body felt impossibly heavy and as much as she wanted to think it was just the exhaustion of a less than ideal day, it made her anxious. She managed to sit on the bed, some invisible weight sitting over her chest and a ringing in her ears, and forced herself to take deep breaths, squeezing her head between her hands. It passed in time, but not without her being once again flooded by a feeling of… wrong-ness, for lack of a better word, the instinctive, anguishing need to reach out and get help.

It also passed. In such a way that she silently berated herself for those thoughts, feeling silly.

It was the first of many awakenings that played out pretty much the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, Pecker's here too, for exposition purposes more than anything but he's also a lot of fun to write, particularly when put together with Peter or Janine. It's a sass fest.
> 
> Told you things were just getting strange. And you haven't seen the strangest stuff yet.
> 
> Title references to the Ozzy Osbourne song "Mama I'm coming home'.
> 
> Next update on 15/05/2018


	4. I drifted away with the mist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so maybe things aren't as 'Normal' as one would have them be, but the worst HAS passed, right? 
> 
> ... 
> 
> ...yeah, about that...

Mrs. Melnitz dropped into the firehouse early the next morning. Winston had no doubt that, had the Melnitz clan made their mind up to it, they would have all showed up, but perhaps the police had over-played how fragile Janine seemed at the moment and they’d thought it wise to send only her first. Not really a bad idea, he thought, seeing how Mrs. Melnitz took one look at the thinness of Janine’s face and all but burst into tears, coaxing her into a bone-crushing hug that had him grimacing slightly. He wasn’t sure anyone could survive a multitude of hugs like that. He would have liked to scurry away, in all honesty, but Peter had insisted for them to be there and the reunion to be done in his office, claiming to have good reason to think the four of them would need to be there. He too looked like he would have liked to give mother and daughter some space. Egon seemed more uncomfortable than during the filming of their brand commercials. Ray, on his part, looked touched.

“Look at you!” Mrs. Melnitz breathed, releasing Janine to cup her jaw and brush some strands out of her face “You’re all skin and bones!”

“Gee, thanks, ma” Janine mumbled, but she looked contrite despite herself, the way she probably looked whenever she stayed out late and came home to a worried-sick mother when she was younger.

“You’re coming home with me and regaining that lost weight” Mrs. Melnitz continued “Right now”

“That is not a good idea” Egon declared.

“Come again?” Mrs. Melnitz’ eyebrows shot up and his eyes set on him, tears forgotten. She wasn’t much taller than Janine, and, by addition, the top of her head was somewhere near Egon’s chin. Still, with one look, Egon seemed ready to sink into the ground. Janine sighed.

“It’s because I’m still in recovery, ma” she said, tugging Mrs. Melnitz hand softly.

“You can recover at home with me” was the answer, in a tart tone.

“Yyyyeah, about that...” Ray interjected, seeming mortified “The fact is we don’t have much of an antecedent when it comes to Janine’s condition right now. I mean, in the realm of legend there seems to be a belief that quite a lot of people somehow stumbled into alternate dimensions by mere accident- there was a notorious one in the eastern states, which eventually turned into the story ‘Rip Van Winkle’ after a lot of re-tellings, and there is one similar tale in the Netherlands, except-”

“ _Ray_ ” Winston warned. Looked like he’d taken the word right out of Janine and her mom’s mouths.

“Oh, um, what I mean is, we don’t really know the effect the inter-dimensional travel could have on Janine’s body, we’re still running tests and should some kind of...let’s call it an adverse effect, happen, we’d like her to be close to us. We’re much more likely to know how to help than anyone else.”

“Ray. Dear” Janine’s mom patted his cheek with a bit too much strength for the light tone to be taken seriously “You know that explanation makes me want to slap you, right?”

“It’s the usual effect” Peter intervened “But I’m afraid he’s right. We haven’t observed any sort of effect just yet, aside from exhaustion and- well, you said it. Skin and bones. But that could change. She could start squirting ectoplasm out of her eyes or something. We don’t know”

“What bothers me” Mrs. Melnitz said, her tone icy, pointing at him in a manner so eerily similar to Janine’s that Peter backed away a bit “Is precisely that. You don’t know”

“Ma-”

“Janine, let me speak. Aren’t you scientists? Aren’t you _the_ Ghostbusters? Isn’t this your expertise? You are _supposed_ to know! But you didn’t know where she’d gone, or how to get her back or even if she was still alive in there”

The only one that managed to hold her gaze was Peter. Winston pretended to be very interested in the beams of the ceiling all of a sudden. Ray was fiddling with the hems of his shirt. Egon was staring at his shoes.

“Yeah, when you put it that way, it seems a lot like we rely on stupid luck” Peter said after a pause “But, see, the thing is, even if that’s all we do -and I’m not saying we do- it hasn’t failed us so far”

“Sounds to me like it failed you on Halloween night” Mrs. Melnitz pointed out.

“Mrs. Melnitz” Winston launched to the rescue “I assure you that we care for Janine’s well-being as much as you do. If we’d had a say on it, she would’ve never even been in danger”

“Oh, I know that!” she seemed annoyed he’d even brought that up, as if it hadn’t even crossed her mind to doubt it and having to talk about it were a waste of time “I know my knucklehead of a daughter was the one who put herself on the line in the first place”

“Gee _, thanks_ ” Janine mumbled.

“I don’t blame you for that- I couldn’t if I tried. But if you four try to tell me that I can’t take my daughter with me after six flippin’ months of anguish and it’s not even gonna ensure her well-being- well, then, I am going to put my foot up your-!”

“That won’t be necessary” Winston assured “Look, we’re not saying she absolutely can’t leave the firehouse or anything like that, just...that we can’t really say yes to her staying elsewhere for now-”

“Not that I _can_ go anywhere either way" Janine cut in in a grumble "The police still has my apartment, remember?”

“-at least not until we’re positive there’s nothing bad going on”

Mrs. Melnitz’ face fell at that and her eyes set on Egon.

“Why?” she demanded “Is there reason to believe there might be?”

Egon took out a notepad from one of his pockets and seemed ready to begin to talk, but Peter cut in before he could.

“Well, she _did_ come out of a wall and no one knows exactly what was on other side, not even her, so there’s that”

“Ma, they’re not trying to keep me locked up or anything” Janine intervened, looking beyond done with the discussion “It’s just in case. Look, we can still go out, right guys?”

“I don’t know, young lady, you have to mind your seven o’clock curfew”

“Ray, kick him for me”

“Well, I’m taking her out _today_ ” Mrs. Melnitz declared, her tone admitting no reply “She needs to go outside as much as she needs rest, I can tell just by looking at her”

“I agree” Egon said, eyes on his notes “She was diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency that would benefit from sunlight”

“Well, the best of times is now, as that musical Ray loves so much would say” Peter said, walking both women to the door.

“It has catchy songs-! Nevermind. Mrs. Melnitz!” Ray called “Just remember to take it easy on Janine’s legs, she’s still a bit weak!”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, son!” Mrs. Melnitz called back as she and Janine stepped into the light and towards the cab she’d left waiting for her return at the front.

“Alright, Spengz, spit it out” Peter called, once he was sure mother and daughter were gone “What were you about to tell mama Melnitz and why am I sure she would have put her foot up somewhere unpleasant if you’d said it?”

“The peak in Janine’s energy levels” Egon replied, unfazed.

“What about it?” Ray asked.

“It increased”

“ _What_?”

“I’m not as good in techno-babble as you two, but I’m pretty sure if something is residual, it’s supposed to decrease in time.” Winston said.

“Correct. Yesterday, before taking her to the police station, I noticed it had an increase. Nothing too drastic, but still noticeable. And certainly, as you’ve pointed out, not to be expected of a residual reading. It had decreased considerably, even under the levels I’d first detected, by the time you got back from the hospital yesterday. Then, this morning, I measured it once more” he set his eyes on Ray “It went up again”

“A cycle” Ray nodded.

“My theory for the moment being is that it is somehow linked to the time of the day, although I haven’t yet figured why”

“ _Duh_ ” Peter said, slapping his forehead slightly and all eyes turned to him “Halloween was originally the end of the Celtic year, right? The start of the dark season. Earth goes to sleep and all”

“Samhain, yeah” Ray agreed.

“And it had its counterpart, the one with the fires and the flowers poles and the down-to-business fertility rituals”

“Beltane” Egon realized.

“Oh. _Oh_! You mean the sacred coupling practices!”

Coupling. Winston eyed Peter, making a face, which earned him a grin.

“Hippies show you the best festivities in college” Peter wiggled his eyebrows.

“Don’t speak, just- don’t speak for a while, man. Egon, how does that Beltane thing connect to this?”

“May the first!” Ray piped in “May the first is Beltaine day. Just as with Samhain, the veil becomes very thin, which was probably what allowed Janine to fall back into our dimension!”

“So... if Samhain was the beginning of the dark season, then this one was the start of the light season, right? The... earth awakening or something like that” he glanced back at Peter, putting the pieces together “You think that peak Egon’s talking about relates to the sunlight?”

“That’s the working theory, yeah” Peter nodded, seeming awfully satisfied with himself.

“It makes sense, I think?” Ray crossed his arms in thought “I guess it’s not that far-fetched to think that a phenomena that _has_ been linked to these threshold celebrations of the seasons is being affected by the minor scale replicas of each sunrise and sunset”

“Only one problem. Why?” Egon asked, a bit impatient “Is there a reason why it is happening on the first place? To what purpose does the peak serve that it keeps returning?”

They all went silent. It was a very good point, but Winston felt like bringing it up was nothing if not stubborn. If _he_ didn't know, chances were neither of them knew. Peter glanced at Egon with his eyes narrowed.

“OK, Spengz, answer the original question, then. Should we worry? Is there something bad going on here?”

Egon hesitated. Which, all in all, was rare.

“I don’t think so" he finally said "But the fact that it keeps fluctuating… it’s disconcerting”

“So be disconcerted for a while, it’ll help you build character” Peter groaned.

"Now you know how I feel half of the time" Winston said. Egon tipped his head as if wondering whether that was a joke or not.

"I gotta agree" Ray said, looking a bit ashamed "It's definitely a thing we should look into, but as long as it's not hurting her..." He shrugged "Maybe it's what's normal in these cases for people to have a fluctuating level of energy for a while. Her body had to adjust to the other dimension, so maybe this is just how it readjusts to ours"

"Still..." Egon trailed off, perhaps knowing he didn't have a solid argument to stand on with this.

"Someone's getting a bit worked up over our secretary's safety, methinks" Peter elbowed him.

"It's called responsibility" Egon said, looking less than amused

"Back in my day, we called it differently"

* * *

 

“Where’d your appetite go?”

Janine was _this close_ to groaning.

“Ma, you act like I didn’t eat one bite” she motioned to the plate she had just dutifully cleaned. OK, alright, she _didn’t_ have much appetite, but she’d managed to make herself eat, both because she didn’t want to have that particular discussion with her mother and because she was aware that she needed it; it had been days -months, literal _months_!- since she last had a decent meal and, frankly, she was worried she wasn’t more hungry. Mrs. Melnitz’ eyes had been closer to tears than Janine would ever be comfortable with all day. She set them on her daughter reproachfully and pursed her lips. _Oh, boy_. Janine looked away, caught sight of a waiter who was staring at her and pretended not to the minute he realized he’d been spotted and she looked at her hands instead.

“Hun, you do know I’m being a pest with this because I’m worried, right?” Mrs. Melnitz said, her voice watery. The guilt was immediate and absolute.

“Yeah” she sighed, and countered, raising her eyes again “The guys are feeling just like you right now, ma, they’re worried”

“I know, I know” Mrs. Melnitz conceded “I’m being unfair to them, I can’t help it. A mother always feels like no one can take better care of her baby than herself. But you have to admit that they could have worded their defense better than just out and telling me they hadn’t the foggiest idea of anything”

“Dr. Venkman never knows anything, that’s the usual”

“Well, none of them was really helpful. Not even Spengler, and I thought he was the smart one”

Janine remembered how Egon had looked among his notes, as if searching where to start in a long list, and suddenly felt like she could throw up what she’d painstakingly just eaten. For all the tests and samples and reassurance that she was fine, she wasn't quite as convinced.

“Maybe they just didn’t wanna alarm you” she defended.

“Well, they did a lousy job at it” Mrs. Melnitz nudged her chair closer to Janine and took her hand, looking mournfully at how much the bones protruded “I’m still worried, hun, I’m gonna be worried for a while”

“For no reason”

“You’re not really helping either, hun, you look like hell”

Janine felt herself tense at this, thinking about the way the waiter had stared and had to fight the urge to look around and make sure no one was staring at the moment.

“Gee, _thanks_ ” she groaned, raising her shoulders defensively.

“Oh, don't- that's not what I mean and you know it!" Mrs. Melnitz snapped, trying to recover calm in her next words "You can't do much about...about..." she motioned for, what Janine felt, was the entirety of her, gulping "...but the attitude you can control"

"Attitude" Janine repeated with a slight smirk. She'd heard that a lot of times already, even since pre-school, but she didn't think her mother was in any position to complain about it, considering the entirety of the family agreed that she'd gotten it from her.

"Yes, Janine, the attitude. You've been acting like there's something wrong with you all day"

That froze the snark upon Janine's mouth effectively.

“Look, can we talk about something else?” she said tersely. Her ears were buzzing and an odd pressure had settled around her head. She rubbed her temple, trying to ease it “This is the only topic anyone’s wanted to talk with me for two whole days and I’m sick of it by now”

“We’re just worried, Janine” Mrs. Melnitz said “And with good reason- you’re stubborn enough to drown two feet away from a lifesaver because you didn’t want to ask for help”

Help. Help would be nice, she thought fleetingly, only for it to be pushed away by annoyance. Help with what? Feeling 'Off'?

"I'm asking for the last time, and then we can talk about anything you like" Mrs. Melnitz pinned eyes on Janine's face as though expecting to pry the truth out of her with that alone "Is something wrong?"

“Nothing’s wrong” she said dryly, hugging herself. _Me. I'm wrong. Just don't ask me how or why._ She pushed the thought aside “Can we go? People are staring”

Mrs. Melnitz seemed surprised. She turned just in time to catch two women sharing a table hurriedly looking away, and she pursed her mouth, scowling.

“Of course, hun, and I got just the perfect place- check, please!”

* * *

 

Janine came back around sunset to Ray and Winston out on a case and Peter resigned to phone duty. Egon could hear them bickering a bit on the first floor and then steps coming up the stairs. The ruffling of a cardboard bag. Then, the same steps coming to the lab. He didn’t need to turn, they were very familiar even after the months of absence and even though they were slower; he kept his eyes set on the whiteboard and his annotations upon it. The nagging feeling that he was missing something very obvious had been pestering him all day, but try as he might he couldn’t find anything missing in his calculations, and he was beginning to grow impatient.

“Peter wants me to tell you dinner will be here soon” came Janine’s voice from behind him, sounding a bit winded.

“Hm”

“I brought you coffee in the meantime” he heard the thermos being placed over the work table and then nothing, so his full attention went back to what he was doing. No, he couldn’t pinpoint any kind of mistake in his procedure, or the parameters considered, or even the possible outcomes. Then what was it? What wasn’t he seeing-? Janine’s voice half-started him back into reality “Are you trying to develop telekinesis again? Is that why you’re staring at that thing like it’s gonna sprout legs?”

“I’m-” he finally looked at her and was too disconcerted to remember what he was saying for a while.

“Quit staring” Janine grumbled.

She’d gotten her hair cut and was wearing what seemed to be a new pair of jeans and a blouse under a lose knitted sweater. Her glasses had been replaced by a new pair too. For a moment, all he could do was stupidly asses to himself that, no, that wasn’t what she’d been wearing when she left. Then, wonder if he really was staring.

She averted her eyes, scowling a bit, and brushed a hand to her hair.

“Ma took me shopping and decided to get me a make-over while we were at it. Does it look bad or something?”

“No” he said. It really didn’t, despite how it made the thinness of her face stand out a bit. It was closer to the hairstyle she had worn during the first times of Ghostbusters and he wondered if it was some sort of psychological tool for recovery, a measure of comfort based in the familiarity of it- Peter would know. Oddly enough, it seemed to be comforting for him as well. Was that why he kept staring?

He turned back to the graph he’d been working on when she arrived, and Janine patted his arm softly, clearing her throat. She held a plastic bag with some strands of red hair up to him.

“I asked them if I could keep some of it. Figured you might wanna take a close look at those or something”

“Thank you” he grabbed the bag, eyes still on the board. He doubted he could get anything significant out of the hair, but it couldn't hurt to try.

“Still haven’t figured what that weird peak is, huh?” he eyed her, wary despite himself and she smiled knowingly “If you’d figured it out, I’d be hearing the explanation right now”

Huh.

“...it’s a process” he defended.

“Have you considered the possibility that it may be a waste of time to hang on to this so much?” he had, but he’d also concluded that learning something was _never_ a waste of time. She was scowling at him all of a sudden “What?”

“Hm”

“You’re staring again”

So he was. This was getting embarrassing.

“I would like to measure your energy levels again” he said, reaching for his scanner. Janine, however, seemed very displeased by the prospect. She retreated immediately, as if he’d been holding a red-hot iron close to her.

“I’ve been prodded at enough for the time being, thank you very much” she growled. He raised his eyebrows. Almost immediately, her demeanor softened “I’m...I’m tired, Egon, it’s been a long day”

She did look tired. The kind of tired of late-night shifts nearing autumn, where she’d down coffee in unhealthy quantities to keep herself functioning and end up with a headache. Egon didn’t care much for the sight, but whether he cared or not was an entirely different matter, this was something that needed to be done if Peter’s theory was to be proved or dispelled.

“It will only take a-” he insisted.

“I said _no_ ” there was an edge to her voice she normally saved for insistent reporters. He kept his stance for a moment, more out of surprise than insistence as she went towards the door, rubbing her elbows, defensiveness practically dripping from her posture, as if she were aware that she wasn’t being very reasonable and didn’t like it any more than he did “You...you said it yourself, it’s probably nothing. Let it go already”

“I didn’t say it was probably nothing” he protested “I said it was barely significant”

“Same difference” she rubbed her temple, squeezing her palm against it for a moment. Egon couldn’t help but scoff a bit and she pinned angry eyes against him “Look- I don’t care what you said exactly, the point is it wasn’t important, right?”

He narrowed his eyes at her. It wasn’t like her to forget a conversation- not even an early morning one, and he was sure he’d never said anything that could be even distantly interpreted in that fashion. Had she simply jumped to a conclusion? Perhaps...but it still wasn’t like her.

“I never said that” he said slowly.

“Well, is it dangerous or something?” she asked, her tone escalating in its defensiveness.

“I don’t have enough data to-”

“Oh, please!” she hissed, narrowing her eyes at him dangerously. She still held her temple, but her other hand pointed at him somewhat accusingly “The only problem here is you don’t know and you can’t possibly _bear with_ not knowing!”

She had a point there and perhaps that was why the words actually stung a little.

"Wrong" he said "I'm... I'm concerned" it was seemingly the wrong thing to say. She hugged herself again, averting her eyes “...is something wrong?”

She seemed even more irritated by this.

“Why is everyone asking me that today?”

“Perhaps because you seem upset”

“I’m not having this conversation anymore, Egon”

“But-”

“ _No_ , Egon”

Egon eyed her for another moment, but ended up lowering the scanner. Experience had taught him that when Janine said ‘ _No_ ’ in that tone, it was usually the time to start listening or one might end up with a fat lip. That and her reaction was completely visceral. He couldn't even begin to think of how to deal with that kind of thing.

“Very well”

She visibly relaxed at this. For a moment, it seemed to him almost as if she were hiding something from him deliberately- but no, she didn't have any of her usual lying signals. Perhaps she _was_ just tired. Perhaps he was over-thinking.

“Don’t forget it” she said on a softer voice, turning to leave “Dinner soon”

“I won’t”

She left and he went back to the board, but, if his full attention hadn’t been enough to catch whatever it was he was missing, now that his thoughts were elsewhere, he might as well have been blind.

Perhaps he could scan her when she wasn’t looking.

Egon groaned to himself. Again? She didn’t want to be scanned., which meant if he did so and she found out, he’d be in for it...but, he needed the data to better determine whether the peak in energy represented any kind of risk, however small.

‘ _Nothing to be done about that for now. Focus_ ’

He did, for a while, but his mind ended up drifting to the way Janine had recoiled at the sight of the scanner once more. Something wasn’t right. She hadn’t recoiled that way even when presented with a tub of psychokinetic ectoplasm, and it was _ectoplasm_. Some people really didn’t like the thought of being scanned on sight, but Janine had been subject to it a lot of times, and actually one of the first he’d tried the scanner on. She knew the tool, she knew what it did and that it didn’t hurt, there was no good reason for her to be wary of it. Something was off.

He went to get some of the graphs and annotations he had on it, eyes scanning over them quickly. No, nothing in her data suggested possession, and furthermore, the psychic-field vision helmet would have shown it immediately if it had been the case. He’d run that test almost immediately upon bringing her back. This...this was something else.

If anything at all.

“Hey, Spengz! Food’s here!”

Egon blinked at the data and looked up at the clock. Had he really spent half an hour just staring at the numbers, letting his mind wonder? Perhaps he did need to sleep more.

Janine was curled on the sofa, fast asleep, as he walked by, and he experienced a second-long stagger upon her sight. For a moment, he was sure she wasn’t breathing. He practically felt his heart give a leap and almost without noticing, he inched closer, a sudden anxiety gnawing at him.

But no, of course she was breathing, she just was...very still. Very pale. Her chest barely moved. It was probably another effect of malnutrition. _Get a hold on yourself, Spengler_.

Still his heart refused to return to it’s given position rather than the pit of his stomach for a good while. He reached to touch the side of her face absently, course knuckles rubbing against her skin. She was cold, colder than what the temperature in the room should have allowed, but she stirred at the touch, humming in her sleep. Alive. Well, of course, what had he been expecting?

“Egon?” came Winston’s voice from the stairs. Egon retreated his hand almost guiltily by mere instinct, and immediately after, Winston came up the stairs “Come on and eat something, you need more than cheese puffs to survive”

“Right. One moment”

Ray kept a blanket in the closet, mostly in case they needed to put out a fire, but it had so far never been used for it and instead it served the purpose of wrapping Venkman when he felt he wanted a nap on the old sofa. Egon took it and put it over Janine, feeling a bit foolish.

“She OK?” Winston asked.

“Just tired, I think” Egon said as he walked past him and to the stairs “I think I’m tired too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, hopefully this raises more questions than it solves.
> 
> ((What's the scanner, you ask? Remember that lil' thing box thing Egon points at his lab subjects and Dana in GB II? I can't find a name on it but it seems to me like it's supposed to measure the individual readings in a nearby bio-subject rather than just the general direction it is pointed at, and also to detect things on more energetic spectrums than just the psycho-kinetic one, as opposed to the regular PKE meters. Hence 'The scanner'.)) 
> 
> Title references to a song from the Dracula Musical.
> 
> Next update on 22/05/2018


	5. Don't you ever laugh as the hearse goes by

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... for you may be the next to die.
> 
> (Yeah, that's not ominous or anything)
> 
> Peter thinks he has Janine's mysterious energy peak figured out, but Egon doesn't think it's quite that simple. Time will tell...

The Melnitzes, cousins, aunts and uncles, as everyone had more or less expected, dropped one by one or in pairs at every given hour during the following days. They all gushed over Janine, worried about seeing her so thin and pale, suggested taking her home with them, seemed disgruntled upon finding out they couldn't, but ultimately left looking satisfied. Ray couldn't tell if Janine was glad to see them or not. She smiled, but it never quite reached her eyes. And by the time they left, she looked exhausted.

It didn't do her any good to be comforting people for something that had happened to her or having to explain, again and again, that she had to stay where she was at least for the moment being, Ray pondered. Furthermore, didn't any of the family members realize what they were doing? He'd seen that kind of attitude at his parents' funeral, where he, like Janine, had inexplicably been the one comforting others, rather than been comforted _._ He _hated_ it. He hated that it had made him feel like if he openly wept or allowed himself to crumble, he'd be failing everyone. He hated that it hadn't allowed him to mourn the way he'd wanted to until years later.

 _'What if that's how Janine feels?_ ' he thought, distressed. Truth be told, they'd all done all they could to make her feel supported, but she insisted she was absolutely fine. Ray couldn't help but feel she might be holding a grudge against them, that perhaps she blamed them for what had happened. The thought hurt more than he cared to admit.

Then, Janine's sister, Lucille, showed up with her two kids on tow. Ray, on duty with the phones for the day, was tempted to warn them that they shouldn't tire her out too much, eyeing the boy and the girl warily. Would they cry? Would Janine have to pretend to be OK to reassure them? However, he kept quiet out of deference for Lucille. She along with her mother, had been one of the few members in the Melnitz family to outright refuse to blame the Ghostbusters for what had happened, both in face of angry family members and of the media trying to put words into her mouth for shock value.

The past six months had been trying for them for more than just legal reasons, what had happened in Halloween night had taken its toll in everyone. The constant hounding of reporters and cops hadn't really helped. The Mayor had demanded they offered some sort of security that people weren't going to start vanishing into walls everywhere and then had put Peck and his made-up new organization, the PCOC, on their heels when they assured it wasn't the case but couldn't really convince the general public of it. Peck, for the most part, had been a pain; wanting recipes for everything, demanding them to dumb down their processes so that anyone could understand them, hounding them about literally anything, just generally obstructing their job. Ray, perhaps in light of what _had_ happened, could understand his point of view a bit better...

And that was part of the problem, that they felt so lousy that they could start agreeing with _Peck._ Despite the fact that they refused to talk about it, Ray knew they all blamed themselves for something. Winston for not having been around, for not having arrived sooner when they called him. Ray himself, for not having listened to Lester. Peter for having refused Janine the raise she deserved and Egon...

Oh, boy, Egon. Just thinking about it made Ray's stomach crumple like paper. Neither of them had been able to actually see how it had happened. They saw Egon's back, or rather, his proton pack, heard him talking to Janine, heard Janine talk back, and then-

Janine's nephew was talking to him.

"Come again?" He asked. Victor shifted on his feet, impatient.

"Can I _please_ have a soda from the mini-fridge?"

"Oh. Oh- sure! Just, uh, not the diet ones, we're getting Doctor Spengler to switch to less sugar"

"OK" the boy turned to go back up the stairs and Ray decided to follow suit, just to check on Janine. He found her asleep on the sofa, her niece Cait had her head on her lap and looked seconds away from falling asleep too. Lucille was looking over both of them fondly.

"She must be real tired" she whispered, looking up at Ray with her index raised in front of her mouth "I'd never seen her fall asleep sitting, and that includes when she worked in the burger joint"

"At the hospital, they said it was malnutrition" Ray said. The sound of the can opening behind him made both him and Lucille start, but Janine didn't move. Victor took one big gulp and offered the rest of the can to Cait, who incorporated slowly, careful to not wake her aunt up, to take a gulp.

"Maybe we should go downstairs" Lucille suggested "Let her rest"

Ray was just grateful she'd said it so he didn't have to. Once at the front desk, Lucille took a seat across him and leaned over one hand.

"Let me guess" she said "You've been having our entire family tree here for the entire week"

"The Melnitz clan is a big one" Ray shrugged with a chuckle.

"You should see grandma's place at thanksgiving" Cait said with a slight shiver.

"At least this time they weren't telling us to burn in hell forever for what we did to her"

"You're kidding"

"Oh, _Lord_ " Lucille groaned "Who-?"

"One of your Aunts, I lost count. She seemed convinced that we'd vaporized Janine and blamed the dimensional phasing" and _that_ hadn't sat well with either of them, even if they knew it was bullshit. Even Winston, often regarded as having the patience of a Saint, had been close to losing his temper as he coaxed the lady to the door. Ray was pretty sure none of them had slept that night.  

"I bet it was Aunt Shrew" Victor said. Cait stifled a laugh and Lucille glanced at him in reproach.

"Aunt _Annette_ , Victor"

"Shrew" the boy mumbled.

"Once something gets in her head, good luck getting it out" Cait told Ray, in a conspiracy tone "One time she was convinced if the cashier beeped her groceries, she'd get cancer because of the laser"

Ray raised both eyebrows. Now that was an intriguing line of thought.

"She's hard-headed, but I think that runs in the family" Lucille said with an apologetic shrug "I'm sorry you had to take that"

Ray raised a hand dismissively.

"Think nothing of it"

"No, really. I know you guys were working your hides off trying to get Janine back, you didn't deserve that kinda lip"

"Believe it or not, it's not the worst we've been told"

"Oh, sure, you got death threats every week when you worked on Columbia, right?"

"She told you that?" Ray laughed with her "That was all Venkman, Egon and I behaved ourselves"

"Unless left unsupervised with a screwdriver" Cait said, amused. Ray cocked both eyebrows.

"That was Egon"

"She talks a lot about you guys" Victor said. Lucille glanced at him in mild alarm "What? It's true"

Ray felt himself going a bit pink. He wouldn't have imagined Janine would be in the mood to talk about them to anyone outside work, and enough for her family to know them pretty well too. It dawned on him that he knew very little of Janine's life outside from work, and most of it they'd learned on the past six months from things her family said of her.

"Huh, well, she's very... important to us as well" he mumbled, embarrassedly.

"Cait, why don't you and Victor wait outside? I gotta talk about something important with Dr. Stanz, real quick"

The girl didn't seem very pleased with having to wait outside, but she patted Victor's back and jerked her head for the door all the same.

"C'mon"

"Yeah, yeah"

Once they were out of earshot, Lucille leaned forward and grabbed Ray's hands fervently.

"You mean it? That she's important to you?" She asked. Ray nodded a bit, taken aback "OK, so ma won't gimme a peep of how things really are and Janine won't either, and I _need_ to know she's gonna be fine, so tell me what you know"

He was a bit taken aback, but honestly not as much as he could have been. None of the other family members had gone deeper into what they'd been explained about Janine's situation except Mrs. Melnitz, it only made sense that Janine's sister of all people would want more details as well.

"I'm not really..." He started, retrieving his hand to scratch the back of his neck "... I don't know how much Janine has told you already, for starters"

"She says she can't remember a thing. Not after she fell in, nothing from the six months spent there, either. She just blinked and she was back in the basement, like nothing happened. Care to explain that?"

"It's possible that trauma keeps her from remembering" Ray explained "Peter- Dr. Venkman, that is, has a much better grasp on this than I do, but he says it's like when you get something stuck under your skin and a cyst- a bubble forms around it. The body's protecting itself. The mind does the same"

She looked at him for a moment longer, then her mouth curved slightly.

"You don't think it's that"

 _Damn_. Perhaps the 'Bit psychic' thing ran in the family. It was actually kinda interesting, maybe he and Egon should try to test them, or at least just- _no. Focus. What are you doing?_

"I don't" he admitted.

"Then?"

"I think it's possible that Janine was in a semi-stasis for most of the while she was in the other dimension, the way ghosts are in our traps and Containment Unit" she blinked, clearly not impressed by the wording "That is... how can I explain it? I guess the simplest way of putting it is, she was floating. Felt nothing, saw nothing, just..."

"Sleeping" she nodded.

"Kinda, yeah. Suspended animation, like when they freeze people in movies to keep them from dying, but in this case it wasn't a complete suspension- Janine's hair grew, she experimented mass loss and has malnutrition. It's not coherent with what six months would do to a person, but it's not the state in which she left"

"She would have died otherwise" Lucille said without hesitation. He nodded. Apparently, the 'Tough as nails' part also ran in the family.

"So she most likely never will remember a thing because she didn't know anything was happening at all. Simple as that." Lucille nodded, looking at her hands, chewing on her lip. Ray recognized the gesture for when Janine was resisting telling them they had an overdue bill "...did she say anything else?"

The curve of Lucille's mouth turned sad.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"I think she's acting strong"

"She's always been like that, you know. Obsessed about carrying her own weight, practically terrified of depending on someone else, like that's gonna kill her or something. I remember this one time she had the nastiest pneumonia... We still have no idea how she even got it, she just did, the way kids do. She couldn't have been older than 17 but she told no one, just locked herself in her room and tried to take care of it herself. We didn't...didn't even notice until one day she wouldn't get up to go to school. Burning up. Dad had to get her to the ER"

"What gets me is, she thinks this way about asking for help but when-"

"When it comes to her being the one helping others there's nothing wrong with needing help?" She completed. He nodded with an amused hum "She's just a weird person. Our grandma used to say that. Weird as they come. I guess It's part of her charm"

That much he did know. One would have to be 'Weird as they come' to work with the Ghostbusters in the first place. Still, she and Winston managed to pass for barely 'Eccentric' when compared to the rest of the team.

"Yeah" he muttered.

"To tell the truth, it worries me that she might be lonely" Lucille said in a hushed tone, as though out of fear of being heard, and she fiddled a bit with her fingers "You probably noticed a lot of the people parading here seemed to not really know her- that's because they don't. They can't even tell that she's acting strong to keep them from crumbling" Ah, so it wasn't just his imagination "Unfair, right? Like she hasn't gone through enough. The worst part is if you try to tell her so, she'll think you pity her and get al huffy- can't blame her for it. Her taking care of herself- her dealing with everything on her own was comfortable for most of us in the family because it meant we didn't have to worry about her, so we let her, and I guess it just stuck"

"Sounds familiar" Ray muttered.

"Except now that we want to reach out and take care of her, she's just too used to doing things her way to let us" she pushed a strand of hair out of her face "...I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'm very grateful that you guys are here for her when she needs it, like now, despite how much of a pain she can be about it. I'm glad she has someone looking out for her"

Ray couldn't help but feeling like they might not deserve that gratefulness. After all, if they'd really been doing right by her, things might have not even gotten as bad as they did, she wouldn't have had a reason to- argh! Again with the guilt. Getting all mopey helped no one.

"We do what we can" he said with a small shrug. Lucille smiled at him, getting to her feet.

"I better get going before the kids start groaning. Tell Janine goodbye for us"

"Will do"

"And... seriously, don't let her push you guys away. She needs you more than she knows"

' _And us her_ ' Ray thought as Lucille waved goodbye on her way to the door.

* * *

 

Janine could have taken offense on the fact that Egon's eyes were on her constantly now that she had other things to worry about, but she wasn't nearly delusional enough to pretend, even for a moment, that it had anything to do with attraction. She hadn't wanted to be scanned the day after her outing, or the week after, for that matter, and to her great surprise, Egon caught the hint and stopped insisting. More to her surprise, he hadn't tried anything shady like doing it when she wasn't looking or when she slept- he hadn't. She knew it the same way she knew Peter was considering giving her the card of a friend of his that specialized in PTSD and that Kylie was worried her cat wasn't eating enough. She just knew. That in itself should have made her reconsider whether the scan was necessary, but something inside her squirmed and twisted at the sole thought, the way it would have done at the thought of eating live worms, and she kept pushing the thought aside and distracting herself with other matters... and feeling Egon's eyes on her when he wasn't out on a bust or up in the lab.

She knew she was being studied- and really, she couldn't blame him. The reason she was so reluctant to being scanned was a mystery even to her, and while she could live with not knowing something, Egon couldn't. And yet, despite his obvious frustration with her negative, he respected her wishes, settling for observing. What did he expect to find out, though? Whatever it was, he seemingly hadn't yet, even as she resumed her work on the front desk -much to Kylie’s visible relief. From that moment on, he seemed to restrict the observation time, perhaps realizing that it was impractical to try and keep her within sight for the whole day, but she still felt his eyes on her whenever he was near her. It was a welcome change, even if it was for the wrong reasons and she really had no mind to do anything with it for the moment being.

She did briefly wonder if that was how he'd felt regarding her during that first year, the year of Gozer and the lucky coin.

Then, the police finally released her apartment and car for her use and she could leave; she had Peck to thank for the swiftness, according to Winston. He wanted the case cleared as soon as possible, it seemed, and that included getting her out of the firehouse and to at least a semblance of normality. Peter said he ‘Hated to see her go but loved to watch her leave’, which, given how self-conscious she’d been feeling lately, was probably his way of being sweet, but she still mock-punched him on the arm.

Well, she had to hand it to the cops, the place was clean. Spotless even. There weren’t groceries on the fridge and probably some of the stuff she had on the cupboards was going to be way past it’s due, but she couldn’t care less. Home. She was home. She slept on her own bed for the first time in ages and almost paid no mind the already usual oppression on her chest upon her awakening.

All in all, it wasn’t that bad. People were still giving her second glances as she walked past, but not as much as before. She was often cold, but she could always step out for a few rays of sun if she wanted to. Her appetite was still lousy and she was always tired, but no one gave her grief if she wanted to nap on the sofa during her break. Days went by, she could at least look at herself in the mirror without wanting to cry or punch someone. By the time June was rolling in, she could almost forget anything had happened.

Almost.

* * *

 

"Is this your idea of a joke?" Janine demanded, waving the check in front of Peter's nose the way she would a newspaper in front of a puppy. He didn't look like he appreciated her tone, but she couldn't care less.

"Do I look like the kind of guy who makes jokes about 50 grand?" he said in mock hurt. She stared and he shifted a bit "Alright, maybe- but this isn't a joke. That's Lester's fee for the bust"

She blinked at him, eyes the check and then back at him.

"What?"

"You made the deal with him, so it's yours- unless you don't want it" his face lit up a bit "You don't want it? I could take care of it for you if-"

"No- hold on, wait. The fee? He _paid_?"

"The beauty of contracted work, since we did rid his house of the ghost, he had to"

"You said Sam left on his own"

"Details, details. Again, if you don't want it-"

"No, I just-" she looked at the check, making a face and began pacing around the room. She certainly could use the money, that'd been the reason for going to Lester's house in the first place, but something didn't feel right. She was forgetting something. She thought of Halloween night and the old bones suspended in a cage from the ceiling and her face lit "...Sam"

"What about'im?" Peter asked, looking pretty resigned to not understanding what was going on.

"What happened to him?"

"We didn't trap him, I swear"

"No, his- what happened to his body?"

"Oh" Peter scratched his neck "...huh. Beats me. The cops took it away in an evidence bag, but I have no idea of where to"

"Would Peck know?"

"I guess, or at least he'd have the tools to find out. Wait, what are you up to? What do you want to do?"

She looked at the check wistfully and then back at him

"Something you're not gonna like"

* * *

 

"Nice place you chose, Janine" Ray said, looking around them. Spring was visible in the emerald green of the grass around them and the blue of the sky, where only a couple of clouds, fluffy as cotton candy could be seen. Despite the obligatory gloominess that comes with graves, the aura of the place was peaceful "A perfect place to lay a restless spirit to sleep"

"Hopefully" Janine said, as the casket was lowered and the acolyte begun an _acapella_ rendition of some hymn that spoke about going home. She didn't know it, but it was nice "Good choice, Winston"

"Thanks"

"I still think Alice Cooper would've been fitting" Peter said. He looked antsy. Egon had been waving his meter around for a while, but now he was shifting closer to her, putting it away. He came to stand so close to her that she could feel the warmth of his body and she was grateful for it- warm as the climate was, she'd been shivering the entire while. They stood there, on a line at the feet of the grave, until the casket reached its final resting place and the grave-diggers begun filling the grave up. That was it. Janine felt oddly disappointed. She had the feeling funerals were supposed to be... grander. But, taking in account she knew little to nothing about catholic funerals, beyond what she'd seen in 'The Godfather' and that the guys, despite their best intentions, hadn't been much help either, she considered she did OK.

The truth was that, despite everything, she felt at peace for the first time since waking in Lester's basement after six months of absence, perhaps because this was the first time since then that she'd done something because she _wanted_ to, not because she needed it to recover. True, she owed nothing to poor Sam, but it was a matter of _decency_. No one deserved to rot in a mangy old basement or a cardboard box in some police warehouse just because their business partner seemingly had no concept of what decency was.

"Gentlemen. This was a very nice gesture of you" the priest said, approaching.

"Thanks, but it was really Miss Melnitz here that made this possible" Winston said, motioning for Janine. The priest corrected himself without missing a beat.

"I don't know a lot of people who would pay for the burial of a person they never knew in life"

Janine smiled politely. There wasn't really much she could say that didn't need explaining, so she settled for that. The priest nodded at her, offered his hand, which she shook (Winston stifled a laugh she didn't understand at this) and then walked away, the acolyte in tow. Soon the grave was filled, the diggers had their tip, tipped their caps at them and left, and Janine kept feeling like something was missing.

"Should... should we say a couple of words or something?" She asked. Peter scoffed.

"Yeah, usually people do that when they _knew_ the deceased, Janine. What are we gonna say? Hey, Sam, sucks that you died, please don't come back and haunt your old place again so we don't have to blast you?"

"That would be tactful" Egon said, raising both eyebrows judgmentally.

"Why don't you say something, Janine?" Winston said "You were the closest to him"

She made a face.

"Oh, please, I'm not exactly chummy with the guy just because we were able to communicate. Why the hell didn't anyone else show up? Maybe someone who _could_ say a few words"

"Yeah, pretty sad" Ray said "I would have thought the guy had at least a couple of fans out here"

"You know how long it's been since this guy stopped doing magic tricks, Ray? His fans are probably buried somewhere around here as well" Peter said.

"Again, _tactful_ "

"Yeah, Pete, maybe don't say that kind of stuff right now"

"He can't help it, he doesn't like burials" Janine muttered. It took her a moment to realize Peter was looking at her funny "What?"

"How do you know that?" He asked. She shrugged.

"I figured as much, the last one you went to was you mom's" now they were all looking at her funny "What?"

"How do you know that?" Peter repeated. His face was uncharacteristically serious.

"You told me"

"Uh, I doubt that" he half-chuckled, but wasn't a happy chuckle. It was more a 'I'm freaking out but dammed if I show it' chuckle. Egon looked like he was deciding whether or not to pull out his PKE meter. 

"Well, I heard it somewhere else, I guess" she tried, feeling oddly guilty, as if she'd been caught on a lie "I don't know, who the hell _cares_? Does it matter?"

" _Yes_?!"

"Guys, not here, please" Ray cut in, motioning for a new group of mourners approaching an open grave near them. They all went silent for a moment, letting the casket pass and then Janine sighed. She could feel a headache coming. She'd have to get those looked at, they'd never been as frequent and now she was getting them at the drop of a hat.

" _Fine_ , I'll do it" she groaned, thinking furiously "Um, let's see... Sam was a... decent guy, I guess. I figure he liked kids- but if he hated them it's fine, I mean, not everyone has to be a kid person, but it'd be weird for an illusionist to not like kids, right? Anyway, he um, was innovative, I guess. Must have taken a lot of talent to make the tricks he made"

"Right?" Ray said "I looked into that. He really _was_ good"

"See? Ray agrees with me, he was good at what he did and he most likely enjoyed it- Otherwise I don't see how or why he thought it was a good idea to- well. You know" she paused "He didn't deserve to die the way he did. I guess there really is no good way to go, if you think about it-"

"Heart-attack in the middle of hanky-panky " Peter dropped. All eyes turned to him.

" _What_?"

"Yeah, I figure- if you gotta go sometime, that'd be a nice way-"

" _Point is_ " Janine continued, begging God for patience because should He give her strength, she'd clobber Peter "I'm sorry he had to go the way he did and I hope poor Sam's in a better place now" she breathed out "That's all I got"

"That'll do, I guess" Ray shrugged. Winston crossed himself and lowered his face, praying silently. Once he was done, they made their way down to the road and towards Ecto-1. The end of the line of mourners from the other burial were making their way up the hill and they kept giving their car funny looks. Egon came to a halt, and Janine came to a halt next to him.

"What?"

He turned to her, with the smile he kept for when, as Peter put it, he was being clever and then his eyes trailed to the 'No ghost' logo on every available surface of their old Cadillac, and the absurdity of having such a thing in a cementery suddenly dawned on her. She pursed her lips to keep herself from laughing but laughed all the same when he uttered, under his breath but the self-satisfaction dripping from his voice all the same:

" _Tactful_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sure hope this chapter lulled you into a sense of false security :)
> 
> Title references to 'The hearse song' (Brooklyn, NY variation) most commonly attributed to Alvin Schwartz, but he himself attributes it to WWI soldiers (Though some believe it dates to the British Crimean War)
> 
> Next update on 29/05/2018


	6. We'll never know when

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (When we'll run out of time)

“Venkman! Where are you, dammit?! Venkman!!” Peter groaned mid-snore and removed the newspaper from his face groggily.

“You gotta be-”

“Venkman!” Peck’s figure turned past the archives that separated his and Janine’s space and went for him, holding a wet umbrella.

“What now, you wanna unplug some poor hospital patient and blame it on me?” but Peck didn’t rise at the comment, his face was pale and he kept motioning for something at the front of the building. Peter could see a thick curtain of rain through the open doors “Hey, Wally, didn’t your mama teach you to close the door behind you?”

“Shut up for a moment and listen! She’s...she’s just standing there, I- something’s wrong, she’s just standing there staring-”

“What?”

“Just- come and see yourself, damn you!”

She _was_ there, a few steps into the sidewalk, standing very still under the rain, staring ahead, looking thoroughly soaked but seeming not to notice it.

“Janine?” he tried to keep his tone from showing just how freaked out he was, to little avail “Hey, Melnitz, you trying to get yourself a sick leave or something? You know we don’t do those”

When she didn’t even stir at that, he glanced up -the clouds looked thick and almost purple. One hell of a storm, the TV had said, and the first of many that would come this year- and stepped under the rain as well, hands in his pockets to keep them from nervously twitching. Cold drops slipped into the neck of his shirt and had him shivering almost immediately.

‘ _But she isn’t even trembling. Not a bit_ ’

Janine, as Peck had said, was simply staring ahead of her, her expression vacant. Her eyes were glassy behind the dripping lens of her glasses. Peter’s stomach dropped at the sight but, hoping to keep himself calm through absurdity, he raised a finger and poked her on the center of the forehead, waiting for a reaction- something, anything. Even her cussing him to the next century would do. Janine didn’t seem to feel that any more than she felt the rain. And she was so cold. Setting his jaw, he removed her glasses and hung them from his shirt pocket, hoping to get a good look at her eyes. Both pupils were almost dilated enough to cover the entirety of the iris.

“Holy crap, Janine” he moaned, turning to Peck, who was looking almost green “What’d you give’er, Pecker?”

“ _Me?_ She was already like this when I came!”

“I don’t know, I saw you put energy drink into your coffee the other day, sure you didn’t give her any of that?”

“Does this really seem like the moment to joke around?”

“Alright, you win that one” he removed his jacket, placed it around her shoulders -she didn’t even react at that either- and began to gently coax her towards the door. Janine let herself be lead without any kind of resistance. Her shoes made weird squelching noises that somehow made Peter’s stomach turn into even tighter knots “C’mon, Janine”

“Besides” Peck added as they stepped inside, dripping puddles onto the garage floor “If she’d drank...ahem, _that_ , she would be anything but standing still”

“Yeah, I still wonder how you manage to not vibrate at enough speed to travel back to your time-" and he called out before Peck could retort "Hey, Egon! I got a riddle for you!”

The intercom on Janine’s desk buzzed.

“Not now, Peter, I’m in the middle of-” Egon’s voice started as Peter went towards it, interrupting him mid-sentence.

“Yes, _now_. What’s red and blank and getting water all over our floor?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea and frankly-”

“ _Bzz_. Wrong answer. Your penalty is to get your ass down here right now before I decide to switch your whip-cream with shaving cream again” the intercom produced a click that meant Egon had released the speak button on his side “Works every time”

“What the hell...?” came Janine’s uncharacteristically weak voice. Peter turned to find her looking down at herself with a frown. Peck had seemingly been caught as unawares by her return to consciousness; he leaned away, as though faced with a snarling dog. Peter, however, all but rushed back to her. Her eyes were normal again and she’d started to shiver violently- had her body somehow blocked the cold out before? “Peter, why are you all-? Why am _I_ all wet?”

“Wet t-shirt contest” he said, trying to mask his anxiousness “I won. Turns out the people likes ‘em hairy”

Janine looked at him like he’d gone mad...which, all-in-all, was an uncommon occurrence, she usually took it for granted. Peck looked like he was struggling not to slap someone.

“I thought we’d agreed this is a poor time for jokes”

“I never _agreed_ ”

“I trust this is important, Venkman, I was...” Egon was saying as he came down the stairs. He took one look at the scene and froze in place, his eyes narrowing “What...happened here?”

“What happened is Miss Melnitz was standing out _there_ ” Peck said, pointing at the curtain of rain visible through the door, sounding almost outraged by the weirdness of it all. Egon’s eyes set on Janine and he hurried his way to her. Janine didn’t seem as alarmed as what would have been reasonable considering everything. If anything, she seemed annoyed “Just...standing there, staring at nothing”

Egon came to stand in front of her, as if suddenly realizing he had no idea of what to do now that he was close, but he recovered immediately, taking out a light to point into her right eye, pulling the lid back a bit to have a better view Peter saw him purse his mouth at the touch of her skin. He was probably thinking of how cold she was too.

"What is the last thing you recall?" he asked in a mutter, checking her other eye.

"I was sitting on my desk, dozing off" Janine replied, letting him do.

“Nothing else?” he grabbed her wrist, checking her pulse.

“No- look, it’s no big deal, I’ve been sleepwalking these days”

Peter stared.

"Sleepwalking" he repeated. She shrugged, as if it were the most reasonable explanation of all time. Hell, probably to her it was.

"Yeah, Dr. Da Silva said it wasn’t uncommon on people with high stress levels"

Peter exchanged a quick glance with Egon, glad to be sure he would have as many problems with that version as himself.

“Dr. Da Silva. Let me guess. _Family practice_ ”

"You need to change into something dry" Egon said, releasing her wrist. "Your immune system is most likely still compromised by malnutrition and-”

"Yeah, yeah, I could catch my death like this” she reached for her glasses, which Peter handed to her and then began to make her way to the stairs, only halting to remove her absolutely flooded shoes “Guess I’ll steal one of Peter’s pajamas again”

“That is not work-appropriate” Peck muttered.

“Neither is kicking our attorney on the shin and yet I’m going to do just that if you try to tell me I gotta stay in these wet clothes”

Once he was sure she was left, Peter turned to Egon.

“Gentlemen- or...Egon and Pecker, I guess. I may yet become outstanding in the fields of psychology”

“I’m not sure parasomnia enters that field” Egon said, seeming troubled.

“Still, this is a pretty good discovery, you know. We could make it to the cover of magazines again”

“Would either of you be so kind to let me know what the _hell_ you’re talking about?” Peck snarled.

“Oh, Pecker, you ghastly lawsuit rodent without any knowledge on these matters whatsoever: there’s so much about this that’s weird that it should be on the Ripley book”

“You think?” Peck raised both eyebrows, clearly finding this to be an understatement “She slept through being thoroughly rained on”

“I recall” Egon said “One occasion in college where an under-class-man of mine acquired a particular brand of cheap mexican mezcal and slept through being laid down on an ant-hill”

“I knew you’d had something to do with it”

“I was merely an observer”

“Yeah, well, quantum physics say that makes you part of the problem too”

“This has got to be a joke” Peck intervened, looking at both men with equal parts astonishment and alarm.

“Not a joke, that little honey-comb shaped bull hit me so hard that I had a four-day-long hangover. _Tuh-nay-yah_. Or something. Now _that_ should have been in Ripley’s too-”

“Stop. Be _quiet_ ” Peck pinched the bridge of his nose and took a breath. He looked like he was getting a headache “Just- let me get this straight. You are suggesting that Miss Melnitz somehow came across that- that beverage and then proceeded to have the most freakish sleep-walking incident in the history of mankind. Am I following this right?”

“Oh, man” Peter almost sounded sorry “No”

“Then why _even_ bringing it up?”

“I don’t tell you how to live your life, Wally”

“It would be very unlikely” Egon said “Not only is that particular beverage uncommon in the States, but I don’t believe there has ever been case where the subject could enter any state of parasomnia in the level of sleep you would normally achieve in a short nap. She sent up a reminder for a consultation appointment a mere ten minutes before I was called down, which gives her perhaps a five-minute interval for having fallen asleep.... _and_ , for the record: Peter was also in a deep-sleep phase when they put him on top of the ant-hill, so the precedent _was_ relevant to this. What I meant was strange sleep phenomena tend to stick to deep-sleep phases”

“Sure, she had dilated pupils and was amazingly docile predisposition to being manhandled by me. I guess that could’ve fooled anyone else" Peter shrugged "But Dr. Venkman isn’t just a title I use to impress dates, you know”

“Naturally” Peck said tersely “It would take much more than that to make a date impressed with you”

“Well, it’s still better than the ‘Real doctor’ you people sent her to. Any MD worth its salt knows real parasomnia in any of its forms is _very_ rare and would have dug deeper into it. This lady? She probably told Janine to take a chill pill and all would be well. _Family practice_ ” he shook his head in contempt.

“Then what do _you_ think this was?”

“Not sleep-walking, definitely”

Peck let out a sigh, running a hand down his face in what was almost comical despair.

“Spengler, tell me you have more than just babble”

“I do. Or rather, I will once I ask Miss Griffin for a consultation”

* * *

Kylie, however, wasn't available for most of the day. Peck left the firehouse in a frustrated flurry, demanding for the memo on this situation to be on his fax by the next day _or else_. Egon wasn't sure if there even _was_ something he could do to them for it, and frankly, he didn't particularly care. Janine came back down flushed from the hot shower and wrapped in the same pajama's Peter had lent her on her first night over to find him and Egon waiting her at the front desk. She sighed, placing her glasses over her nose again.

"Alright, let's hear it"

"What?" Peter said, wearing his best innocent face.

"Whatever cockamamie theory you guys are onto now, let's hear it"

Egon looked at his hands, wishing they _had_ a theory they could tell her, but for the time being they had nothing besides 'Something's not right', and it was an over-statement.

"We just wanna know more about this, uh, sleep-walking thing you mentioned" Peter said, feigning a casual tone "Has it happened before?"

"A coupla times" she said, nudging him so he'd move out of her chair "Nothing serious, I fell asleep at my bed and woke on the window, or the sofa. Stuff like that. Half of the time it even takes me a moment to realize I didn't fall asleep there"

"And, do you recall what you dreamed at such times?" Egon asked. She paused. For a moment, she seemed almost frightened.

"I... no, not specially"

"No big deal, most people never remember their dreams" Peter assured, furiously willing for Egon to turn and see his discouraging expression. No such luck.

"And why hadn't you told us about it?" Egon pressed on. She scowled at him.

"I'm a grown woman, Egon! Excuse me for thinking I'm entitled to my privacy"

"Is this in any way connected to the reason you refuse to be scanned?" he kept his tone calm, even if he couldn't help the pang of annoyance her response had caused him.

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You have failed to give any acceptable reason for it, just like how the reason you claim to have hidden information from us now is questionable at best"

" _Information._  Of course" she bitterly laughed "I could have know that's what's eating you"

Peter was frantically signaling for him to back-pedal, but Egon paid no mind; Janine was being unreasonable and he had good reason to suspect the reason for it held the key to all the mysteries her return still held. He leaned over the desk, the way he'd seen Winston do when about to use his charm or sincerity to persuade people... not that he knew how to do that, but he thought perhaps it had to do with the body language and tone of voice.

"Are you hiding something from us?" he asked, softening his tone as much as he could. It wasn't very effective. If anything, Janine seemed even angrier- there was a hot-white flash of rage in her eyes, but he had little time to observe it. She almost immediately recoiled from him, as she would have from a hot stove. He couldn't help but feel a bit hurt. She didn't even speak at first, breathing hard, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"...drop it, Egon" her tone was tart. Egon turned to Peter for support only to find at some point he'd sneaked away to the stairs.  _Like a rat fleeing a sinking ship_ , he thought, glaring at his retreating feet briefly.

"I need answers"

" _Yes_ , yes of course" the bite in her voice made his insides curl "You  _always_ need answers. It's always about the answers... you're unbelievable, do you know that? Un- _fucking_ -believable!"

He'd been told things more or less on the same note more than once, sometimes even in different languages. Not once had it cause him such aggravation as Janine was slowly causing him.

"Your opinion has been noted, but my point stands that you shouldn't hide things from me-" he caught himself a second to late, clearing his throat " _Us_. From us"

"Oh, that's real _cute_ , Egon, am I supposed to believe this is about me and not about your- _thing_ with having to know  _everything_?"

"What you believe or not is your own business" his ears were burning "It doesn't change anything"

Janine blinked at him, rage disappearing from her eyes to be replaced with something much worse, something that felt like a punch in the gut. Hurt and disappointment.

"Right" she said, her voice heart-wrenching and calm "I guess I should have known. After all this time, I really should know better"

Something about the way she said that made Egon unbearably distressed. His body was immobile, and he was certain his face didn't betray it, but he could feel himself grow cold. More so when she got to her feet and, without a word, keeping her eyes from him, began to walk away. _Say something. Say something, damn you!_   He racked his brain for something he could say or do that made this conversation feel less like he'd just severed the bond between them definitely, but words bunched up within him, none satisfying enough. She was stepping onto the stairs, she was leaving. There had been a time he would have just let it happen.

But then she'd almost been gone for good.

"It was my fault"

The words escaped his mouth unchecked and he almost didn't realize he'd said them out loud until Janine halted mid-stride and turned to look at him, looking like she wasn't sure she knew what he meant, so he elaborated, forcing the words out of his mouth "What happened to you. It was my responsibility. It was my fault"

Janine mouthed, her eyes wide.

"I- _what?""_ she looked at him as though expecting clarification that made it so she'd understood it wrong, when it never came, she slowly stepped towards him. One, two steps, and then faster, three, four, five- she was in front of him, seeming mortified "No. Egon- you're-! No. Is that what this is all about?" she raised a hand towards him and then retrieved it to run her fingers through her hair, her voice quivery "No, it was an accident. You know it!"

"It was negligence" he contradicted her and opened his hands, turning them to see his palms under furrowed brows "A slip in the moment when it mattered the most. You said it at some point- it could have happened to anyone"

"But it happened to you" she said, reminding him of his own retort.

"But it happened to me and _you_ paid the price" he paused, struggling to speak freely "I... all I had to do was hold on and yet..." he trailed off, his throat tight and raw, so he glared at his hands, fingers closing into tight fists.

"Egon-" Janine started. He knew the tone, it was the same Winston and Ray had used constantly during those infernal six months. How he hated it. How he hated the merciful lies that came hand-in-hand with it.

"I don't understand how it happened. How I couldn't make my hands _work_ properly when it mattered the most, but that was exactly what happened. I was powerless to help you. And I find that. Simply. _Infuriating_ " he finished between his teeth. It was a somewhat lame way to summarize what had been burning within him for the past six months, but he doubted he could ever explain it to her properly. The utter betrayal he'd felt to see hands that had no problem putting together nuclear equipment fail at the simple act of grabbing her hand. The anger and hatred that had silently consumed him over being in one piece when she had paid for his mistake. How he'd wished, time and again, to undo it, to undo so many things he knew he'd never be able to. And now that she was back, how he feared his mistake would haunt her forever and he'd be once more unable to help her. The guys might say what the wished and assure him it wasn't his fault but he knew, he knew and how it incensed him that they wouldn't even grant him the dignity of not trying to sweeten such a bitter pill the way they would with a child. Her hands slid over his, gently coaxing them to open.

"Listen to me" Janine muttered "For _once_ in your life, listen to me, Egon" he wanted to protest that he did listen- but the truth was that he should do it more and he knew it, so he kept his eyes down and listened "It's not your fault, OK?" he scowled at the floor, but she squeezed his hands "No! Stop it, will ya? ! I don't blame you- no one blames you. And you're gonna stop blaming yourself right now! I'm not gonna stand here and hear you say bullshit. You know better than that!"

Again, he wanted to protest, but something in him broke. Perhaps because he was suddenly, painfully aware that she was there and she was alive and –possibly?- well and she was telling him it wasn't his fault and the simple truth was he'd been wishing this to happen since Halloween night. To see her and feel her and know she didn't blame him. Her absence had been like a constant thorn under his skin, the knowledge that he was to blame for it making it worse. He swallowed a knot around his throat, eyes setting over her face finally, and she must have taken it as some sort of signal, because she released his hands to put her arms around his neck, pressing him close. His hands hovered to the sides, unsure of where to land, but she didn't seem to mind. He looked at her long eyelashes and the shape of her mouth and found himself thinking: _This is nice_. His hands finally found a good spot on the small of her back.

She stayed like that, with him absently breathing her in, then she backed away with a small laugh.

"What is it?"

"Ray thinks I worry too much about comforting others for what happened to me" she said, making her way back to her seat and missing the way Egon furrowed his brow at this. Had Ray told her that or...? "I'm starting to think he's right, but- to be honest, it does make me feel better. It's probably still not healthy, but if it works..." She shrugged a bit and gave him a funny look "You're staring again. Are you going to make this a habit?"

He wished he were articulate enough to tell her that he was probably just very glad that he could look at her at all. Then again, he thought as she averted her eyes somewhat playfully to check on the answering machine instead, perhaps she knew.

And it was unnerving for two entirely different reasons.

* * *

 “It sounds like it _could_ be demonic activity but- she was staying in the firehouse for a couple of weeks, you _would_ have definitely noticed some of the signs if it were the case” Kylie sounded like she was juggling books as she spoke, her hums carrying over the speaker as she went. Ray was moderately glad that she was willing to stay in the store a bit late to act as their consultant, but he hoped she wasn't making too much of a mess “Funky smells. Disembodied voices. Moving furniture. Unexplained economic distress. A sudden tendency for religious objects to fall down or break”

“Our thursdays in a nutshell” Winston said. He and Ray had been filled in on the day's weirdness after Janine was sent home in a pair of Peter's jeans and a sweater of Egon's that reached halfway down her thighs -it was clear that her clothes weren't going to dry anytime soon.

“Demonic activity would have shown in the tests I ran on Janine" Egon said “Their energy print is very conspicuous. There was nothing that suggested possession, not even in its infestation or oppression stages”

“It’s just- it’s kind of a wide range to look into when you guys aren't even specific” Kylie said after a thump that suggested her putting a heavy book on the counter to browse through it “There have been cases linking episodes of what appears to be sleep-walking linked to supernatural activity, but most of them are just plain old poltergeist activity. And _nothing_ exactly like what you're describing has ever been documented”

"What about the sudden clairvoyance?" Ray asked.

"Well, that's another story- you know how people who've experienced NDE are sometimes documented to have gained a higher PKE capacity right after? Janine literally _was_ on the other side for a while, so it could be something like that"

"Whatever it is, it's creepy" Peter said "Specially when she doesn't realize she does it- really, _I_ told her about hating burials? Does it sound like something I'd admit to?"

"Maybe stick to the sleep-walking for now, Kylie?" Ray suggested "It's gonna be tricky enough with that"

“I think maybe it was some sort of trance?” Winston said “Y’know, like in Las Vegas, when they call you up front and make you act like a chicken”

“Hypnotism. Nah” Peter intervened “It doesn’t work that way”

“Mind control, on the other hand...” Egon muttered, as if the thought had just occurred to him.

“You think someone’s messing with Janine’s brain?” Winston asked.

“I mean, I guess it’s a possibility” Kylie mumbled on the line “There _are_ some entities with that ability, though not many, but I don't think I've ever heard or read anything that cross-references mind control and parasomnia _and_ clairvoyance, all in one”

The phone beeped, the ‘Line 2’ line blinking. The Ghostbusters exchanged glances.

“Tell you what, I’ll look into it this week” Kylie said, familiarized with the beep “And call you if I find something”

“If" Peter repeated "Shouldn't that be 'When'?”

“With what you've given me? 'If' is already pushing it, doc”

“Kids these days have forgotten what hope looks like”

"Take a look at the economy you've left us and tell me if you can blame us" Kylie quipped before hanging up.

* * *

 If Venkman and Spengler had thought they could just joke around the topic and let Peck think nothing serious was happening, they were wrong. Mortally wrong. Loose ends were some of the most vexing pet peeves for him and when it came to the Ghostbusters, they could be authentic nightmares. Janine Melnitz was proving to be a constant source of them, what with her inability to tell what had happened to her during her disappearance -even if it _had_ proved an advantage before- and what appeared to be lingering symptoms of whatever it was _did_ happen. Peck had some worries regarding the risk to the public mental health that the sole concept of ‘Falling through’ into another dimension posed from the start, particularly when the Ghostbusters couldn’t provide any security on whether this could repeat itself or not, but it had lessened to some degree over the apparent iniquity this ‘Falling through’ could have on a person.

Not anymore. Upon further digging, he kept finding unsettling sequels to it in Melnitz’ state. Her neighbors insisted she spent the night coming and going inside the apartment, probably insomniac. Zeddemore had -very reluctantly -admitted to not having seen her have a decent meal in ages. Dr. Da Silva claimed to see some recovery in her but not nearly enough considering the treatment she was in. All of these, while not quite as striking as this ‘Crisis’ as he’d been calling it in his mind, still managed to make him antsy. The fact that she wasn’t responsible for it was really besides the point, which ultimately was that she was acting as if ignorant to the fact that things weren’t normal. It was a pressure pot ready to blow, that much was obvious, and Peck wasn’t really keen on having yet another explosion in his expedient.

So, not one week later, he arranged a meeting between the ghostbusters and the police department to discuss terms of dependence on each other and dropped into the firehouse with them absent. Janine didn’t seem very pleased to see him, but that much was standard.

“What is it now?” she called “The guys aren’t in”

“I know. I arranged it” he took a seat across her, ignoring the wary, fierce glance his words earned him “I’m here to talk about your condition”

“What condition?” she wrinkled her face the way she might have at someone wanting to talk about her pet dragon. Peck let out a sigh.

“I have no intention of devoting more time to this than what is strictly necessary, so I’d appreciate for your cooperation”

“I doubt it’d make me more willing if I knew what you’re talking about, but by all means...”

“I mean your episode of the other day”

Her expression soured even more. Which was an accomplishment, really.

“Could'a known... ”

“Do you really expect me to believe what happened the other day was a sleep-walking episode?”

She was refusing to look at him, but her face looked paler. Peck was suddenly sure that she herself couldn’t help but having doubts about the veracity of this version as well, but had chosen to ignore them.

“That’s what it was!” she protested, nontheless “I’ve- I’ve been having them- they’re related to stress and lord knows I have my share of that daily thanks to the likes of you”

“Miss Melnitz, I may not be a health expert” he said curtly “But I know no one could stay asleep after being as soaked as you were”

She didn’t seem to have any good reply for this, so she got to her feet, adjusting her glasses over her eyes.

“I don’t know since when you think this is _your_ business, but-”

“It _is_ my business when an employee that has already tampered with the dangerous equipment this company uses before, suddenly begins displaying signs of being unstable”

She was quickly going from pale to red with this.

“You have no _right_ -!”

“Miss Melnitz” I am in full intention of looking past this...episode of yours like a harmless nerve crisis” he continued, crossing his hands before him. He’d seen enough of her to know she had a temper, but he was also very confident in his ability to make a convincing case that would put her at ease and get him what he wanted “Something completely understandable after your little inter-dimensional escapade” she flinched angrily at that “All I ask is that you stop with-holding information about any and all lingering symptoms you are experiencing to both your medic and your bosses. I don’t believe that to be unreasonable”

She lifted her glasses to rub the flesh over her eyebrows tiredly, and he realized she didn’t look any less drained than she’d been on her first night back. Sure, she had a better color and had regained some weight, but the impression she gave was still of someone who needed rest as soon as possible. All the more reason to hurry the process up, he told himself, shifting on the seat. If she wanted him to stop bothering her with it, she would have to comply.

“I’d say the guys put you up to this” she said between her teeth, eyes squeezed shut as if fighting a headache “But honestly I can’t see them trusting you with watering a cactus, much less this”

“Are we agreed, then?”

“You got a lot of nerve...” she muttered, sounding suddenly groggy. She still hadn’t gone back to her seat and Peck saw her sway in place, as if suddenly dizzy. Her eyes were unfocused. He straightened on the seat.

“What is it?” she muttered something he couldn’t catch and her head fell forward a bit. Was she fainting? Panic mixed with annoyance blazed within him at it, hands reaching for her hesitantly “Look at you, you can't even stand-!”

Her hand slammed on the desk with so much force that he all but jumped onto his feet, face slowly rising to look at him with an unsettling, blank expression. Her eyes looked funny. It took him a moment to realize the pupils were dilated, as they had been during the other crisis.

“Miss Melnitz?” Peck muttered. He felt his guts tightening reflexively. Something deep down was begging him to run away and it took all of his stubbornness and pride to stop himself from obeying. This was just Melnitz, for goodness sake!

He was still thinking it over when Janine pounced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Admit it, you thought I was joking with the false sense of security thing.
> 
> The family practice comment on Venkman's part comes mostly from things I've heard my MD father and his friends say about them: the kind of mistakes they tend to make and how unreliable some of them can be. I guess it's a thing that can happen with any specialty, but for whatever reason it just seems to happen more often in family practice. This does not mean I share the opinion- it just seemed like the kind of ridiculous and somewhat unexplainable dismissive bias Peter would have. 
> 
> Title references to "Like I'm gonna lose you" by Meghan Trainor (Feat. John Legend)
> 
> Next update on 05/06/2018


	7. I’m banging up the walls in the corners of my mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *tire screetch* Why are you stopping here? Go on! Find out what happened next!

“For all our troubles, they seemed relieved to see us leave” Winston commented absently, watching for the change of light.

“Police departments have a lot of business related to the passing of individuals” Egon muttered, flipping through his notebook furiously, as he did now whenever he had some time. Peter joked about how he was actually memorizing Debbie Gibson lyrics, but they knew it was his report of Janine’s readings. He was looking for something he himself didn’t know how to spot and Winston had a feeling it was crucial “It’s possible our presence reminded them of that”

“I still think we should have given the full talk all the same” Ray sighed “I had some very good pointers I-”

“Ray. Less is more” Peter said and then quoted his own words from earlier that day “ _If it floats, it’s our business, not yours_. Simple as that”

“There are a lot of subcategories they would have benefited from listening about”

“Why? They’re not gonna fight ‘em, we are!”

“Hey, ain’t that Wally Wick’s car?” Winston said, as he rolled Ecto into the path of their garage entrance. Three sets of eyes followed his finger and promptly set forward as he added, in a gasp “Oh, _shit_ ”

Peck was there alright, his neck trapped between Janine’s fingers, which he desperately pulled from with both hands, trying to free himself. His face was beet-colored at this point.

“Janine!” Winston all but jumped out of the driver’s seat and ran to them. This was bizarre, no other word for it. He could see how thin and bony her hand was still, but also the way Peck's skin lost color at the strength of her grip.

“Down, girl!” Peter called “We need him alive for tax reasons, c’mon!”

Ray was hurrying to Winston’s side. Egon had his scanner in his hands and was tinkering with the controls.

“Janine, let him go!” Ray cried, trying to pull her away by the waist as Winston fruitlessly tried to pry her hands from around Peck’s neck. It was like trying to make a tree budge.

“Ray, the readings!” Egon called over the ruckus. That seemed to get her attention. She turned to look at Egon for a moment, eyes ablaze with something unknown and primal that made him start... and then she blinked and released Peck’s neck, seeming completely disconcerted with her surroundings as Ray and WInston held her back and away from the hacking man. Peck struggled to regain his breath, knees bending.

“Well, Peck, you’ve gotten two members of our staff to go for your neck” Peter said, patting his back roughly “That’s gotta be a record”

“...bite...me...” Peck coughed, his voice painful-sounding, his hand gingerly touching his reddened neck.

“Classy. Hey, Janine? Why don't you cool off in the coffee shop for a while? I hear they have a relaxation flower tea or something"

Janine, looking relieved to have an excuse to leave, grabbed her coat and purse and all but dashed away as fast as her legs would carry her.

“She _strangles_ me..." Peck grunted, still trying to catch his breath "...and you give her a tea break!"

“She was dying to get away and it works for us that she isn’t around” Peter muttered, eyes on her as she disappeared out the door. He continued as he tugged Peck back onto his feet and then the client chair, keeping his voice down as if to avoid the walls from hearing “Alright, Pecker, I know this is very, very hard on you, but you’re gonna have to keep the old pie-hole shut unless strictly necessary. Nod or shake your head for now. Her pupils were dilated when she attacked, right?” Peck made a face but he nodded “She looked pretty much like she did the other day when standing in the rain” Peck nodded again. Peter clicked his tongue “Alright, this one’s tricky so think carefully before answering… Ray thinks you wear a beard because without it you look like a twelve-year-old in a suit-” Peck made an attempt at lunging at him and Peter leaped out of the way smoothly “OK, so that's a no on possible brain damage, I guess”

“Did you...you know, yell at her or something?” Winston asked pushing Peck back onto the chair. He swallowed, grimacing and shook his head "So you didn't do anything to cause-?"

“I wanted answers!” Peck coughed, trying to take a deep breath, air hissing it’s way in and out of his swollen throat, ignoring how they motioned for him to calm down “...about the...other d-” he broke into another anguishing fit of coughing that made Ray grimace and go get water.

“You asked about that thing with standing in the rain and that’s when she got like that” Winston guessed once the cough receded. Peck nodded and he sighed “Yeah, that doesn’t sound suspicious”

“I mean, I think Janine _would_ strangle someone over being a pain in the neck” Ray said as he came down the stairs with the water and a notepad “But just for asking questions? Not a chance” Peck didn’t even nod upon receiving the glass, just drinking the content down frantically “It’s too convenient. And too obvious- well, spirits aren’t what you’d call subtle, after all. They’re actually trying to get someone’s attention half of the time” Peck finished with the glass and Ray handed him the notepad, taking a pen from his own pockets and giving it to him too “So you don’t have to speak”

Peck immediately begun scribbling, so angrily that the words were barely legible. But they could still make out what he’d written: ‘ _Would any of you be so KIND to tell me what the HELL you’re talking about?!_ ’

“Yeah, we kind of suspect Janine might be under some sort of… external control, so to say” Peter dropped, in the tone of one admitting to having realized they drink too much coffee. Peck closed his eyes in exasperation.

“Miss Griffin is helping us determine the possible suspects, but she's yet to find anything that sounds promising” Egon said, still toying with the meter “In the meantime- Ray, while attacking him, Janine was giving out very high levels of psychokinetic energy. Well over her usual”

"She has a _usual_?" Peter deadpanned and was ignored.

“Is this the famous peak you’ve been looking into?” Ray asked, looking at the meter over Egon's shoulder.

“There are similar traits to it. It most likely comes from the same source but is an entirely different phenomena. While the peak exhibits traits of energetic activity, this one was more consistent with what, for the lack of better terms, we could call a controlled contact. Similar to what studies involving mediums describe”

“Janine’s a medium” Peter repeated, deadpan.

“From a certain point of view, yes. And a very gifted one at that" he paused "...so, an _extra large,_ I guess”

Peter slowly turned to glare at Egon's self-satisfied smirk. And then smirked back.

"So, kind of a _handful_ , huh?" he said, placing hands over his own chest and making an illustrative, squeezing gesture. The smirk fell off Egon's face in record speed.

“The first parapsychology journals did describe mediums having a somewhat restricted range of movements that were simply physical projections of what the spirit contacted was trying to do" Ray started, half towards himself, unaware of what he'd interrupted "Together with an apparent vacancy of the mediums personality from their bodies and bodily symptoms that are somewhat reminiscent of parasomnia” he made a face “Y'know, I don’t really care much for medium theory. A lot of the cases involved were frauds and the idea that only a fistful of people can successfully communicate with spirits is just stupid, but in this case it might just be right”

“That's where the whole thing started” Winston pointed out “Remember that recording on Lester’s camera? Janine almost managed to make Sam Hein’s ghost release her just by talking to him”

"So there might be some truth in it?" Peter looked like he was really struggling not to laugh.

"I mean, she _is_ our public relations staff” Ray said, scratching his nape with a pensive face "It'd be ironic enough that it wouldn't surprise me if she turned out to have a gift for it"

“That isn’t it” Winston insisted “I mean, I _have_ seen her guess stuff in a way that's just  _freaky_ , even before this whole mess started"

"She's displayed some level of precognition in the past, yes" Egon said almost absently. Peter looked at them accusingly, as though thinking ' _What, does everyone know this except me?!_ '

"But I don’t think you need any kind of special superpower to communicate with ghosts, just...just empathy. That’s it. Empathy and compassion”

Peter made a face.

“I thought we’d made it clear after the whole ‘Making the Statue of Liberty walk’ thing that we were never going to take mushy stuff into account again”

“Say what you want, Pete, but it was paying off for her” Winston’s voice was stern “She would’ave gotten out of that wall with just that if we hadn’t jumped in and started shooting everything”

Peter didn’t have a response for that so he was quiet for once. Ray kept his eyes elsewhere. Egon fiddled with the meter. An awkward silence spread among them. Peck wrote something and tapped on the notepad for attention.

‘ _Not that this conversation couldn’t get any more uncomfortable but my neck hurts and I probably have to go to a hospital now, so WHAT is the verdict?_  '

Egon cleared his throat.

"We will have to conclude that Janine's psychic gifts possibly made it possible for the entity to take control over her, similar to what early parapsychology described as medium trances"

' _Is she a risk?_ ’

They exchanged a look.

“I don’t really think so” Ray declared “She’s been normal the rest of the time”

“Is it possible that only the acknowledgment that something might be wrong was what triggered this reaction?” Egon asked.

Scribbling ‘ _THAT I don’t really understand. If she knows something’s wrong, why would she ignore it?_ ’

“It’s more common than you’d think” Peter said “Sometimes you have what’s making you unhappy right in front of you but you keep looking elsewhere and finding other things to blame- kind of like some sexually frustrated pencil neck desk workers that shut off a machine they shouldn’t and then wanna blame the guys telling them not to for the explosion they caused”

‘ _Venkman, I will put this pen into your goddamn eye if you don’t shut up'_

“While I do believe it to be a factor, I believe we should consider the possibility that it’s not entirely her own mind that is rejecting discussion about her condition” Egon muttered, remembering Janine’s shortness at the sole idea of being scanned, and regarding all and any discussion to what had happened to her. It wasn’t like her to just hide away from things, and while some of it could perhaps be attributed to trauma, he was convinced something else was happening as well “Other measures could be taking place”

“Like what?” Peter asked.

“Wait… in the _Santería_ system of beliefs, it is possible for a spirit to hound a person and make them very uncomfortable, sometimes even sick in certain situations in order to push them to the contrary” Ray explained, sounding like he was just putting things together as he spoke “For example, the infamous love spells consist on sending a spirit to make the cursed person feel terrible unless they’re with the person who had the spell cast, so in time, the victim is conditioned to _think_ they are happy with the caster even when they’re really just...not quite as unhappy. In some cases, it’s not even successful enough to work exactly like that, but it still makes the victim mentally exhausted enough to be more receptive to more mundane tactics. It _could_ be something like that”

“Ray, this is all nice and square but it’s still just theory” Winston reminded him “We can’t know if this is what’s going on since Janine won’t tell us how she feels”

“So what? Do we call it a day and put a sign on the door? _Don’t disturb the secretary_?”

“Miss Griffin hasn't found anything promising, and I fear this extra data will make what little she _has_ found pretty much useless” Egon said "Still, perhaps it couldn't hurt to share our new discoveries with her"

‘ _Then you do that’_ Peck wrote, getting to his feet, straightening his clothes and then adding ‘ _And put Miss Melnitz on a muzzle in the meantime_ ’

“Hey, let’s do this, Pecker, if another member of our team goes for your neck you get a free thermos” Peter declared with a grin that made Peck look like he was considering making good on his promise to put the pen into his eye.

* * *

Janine had come back from the coffee shop with a box of donuts and looking like she was keeping herself from having a nervous breakdown by the skin of her teeth. Upon reveal that Ray and Egon wanted her to spend the night just for observation purposes, she had seemed truly miserable, but, and perhaps given her actions towards Peck, she didn’t protest. She even let them scan her and prod her without so much as a protest, but they could both see how tense she was.

"Hey, we're not going to bite you" Ray said at some point, trying to ease her "Right, Egon?"

"Correct"

"Unless you want us to" he poked her playfully under the ribs.

"I- what?" Janine half-smiled at Egon's confusion, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. She gave off an indescribable feeling of distance, somewhat reminiscent of trying to talk to someone from across a glass. Ray didn't like it one bit, it reminded him of Lucille's warning. _Don't let her push you guys away, she needs you more than she knows._ The more he tried to elicit a smile from her, the more he felt like she distanced herself, until a point came where he ran out of conversation themes. Egon seemed just as troubled, despite his apparent calm. The fact that the data taken had barely any significance only made it worse, because he couldn't blame it on anything. 

"Maybe it's not a good idea to push her" Winston said in the early morning, when they had sent Janine to sleep and were going over the data with lots of coffee "She might try and strangle us too"

"The same thought occurred to us" Egon replied "But it's as though the entity didn't want to show itself"

"Maybe it knows we'll kick it's ass when we catch it" Peter piped in.

"Can we catch it, though?" Winston rubbed the back of his neck "I mean, we don't even know what it is or what we're doing"

"Not that we ever do"

"Good point"

"I'm more worried about Janine, though" Ray muttered "She was acting... off last night. I mean, it can't be easy to just wake up and realize you're strangling someone, but she was... I don't know, it felt..." he gestured wildly, unable to find a good description "Off"

Egon nodded in silence. If Ray had no words to describe the sensation Janine's behavior had given them, he had no hope of being able to instead.

"Do you think she remembers any of it?" Winston asked in a whisper. 

"Perhaps it's better that she doesn't"

* * *

They gave Janine the day off as soon as she got out of bed and went through all of the data yet again, hoping to spot something they'd missed previously. No such luck, however, it wasn't all wasted time and effort. Peter’s theory regarding the action of the day and the night over Janine’s energy levels was debunked, as Egon observed the decrease in them didn’t seem to have anything to do with the time of the day; nothing else, save for the measure his PKE meter had picked up at the time of the attack, was different enough to matter. It was infuriating. Egon thought how they surely looked like dogs chasing their tails to this entity and the idea made him so upset that he had to sit on the roof level with a box of cheese crackers for a while. Which left Winston and Ray to the unpleasant task of putting Peck up to date with things.

Peck was furious, and he didn't know nearly enough about their procedures to really grasp how much they were at the end of their rope with the investigation so far, demanding that they _did something_ , which Peter visibly resented, but, and perhaps because Peck was still a bit roughed up in the throat, they managed to not start a catfight over it. They agreed to settle on it all being a product of trauma, of the effect inter-dimensional displacement could have on a human’s psyche. Peck wasn't buying it, but, as Ray reminded him, poking Janine around about it wasn't going to end well; the bruises on his neck were a proof of it. They had to be careful and not let her know they were looking too much into it, lest the 'Crisis' repeat itself but this time worse. A few sentences in shrink-babble on Peter’s part on a report and it was settled. Janine typed the report for herself, sent a copy to her doctor and another to Peck, and the matter seemed to be dead and buried... or, at least, as far as the legal terms were concerned. Janine, on the other hand, still seemed really perturbed with with the whole matter. And where she would have normally called them out on their bullshit, this time she kept quiet. And, as if that weren't illustrative enough to just how affected she was by the event, she begun to recoil within herself.

Peter noticed it first- it was a bit hard not to, when even his jabs couldn't get her to rise for more than a few snappy replies, but then he also noticed she all but fled the scene the minute her shift was over, something she hadn't done even when things went south with her and Egon. She barely talked to any of them anymore, and when she did it was as though she were trying  _very hard_ to keep herself from saying anything that wasn't small talk. She drank too much coffee, perhaps fearing the grogginess that had preceded her attack on Peck, and refused flatly to take breaks on the second floor sofa as she had been doing the previous weeks... and she always looked so tired, much to their displeasure. However, after Egon quietly commented that she 'Looked like she needed to get more rest' and she glared at him until he was forced to leave the room, they learned better than to comment on it. The sensation that she was setting a barrier between them and herself was just palpable, and they  _hated_ it.

The following week, the days became slow successions of small works here and there. They begun splitting the cases among teams rather than charging in group, in order to give each other more free time and spare at least two members of the team the risk of getting a heatstroke in the traffic, and they made the most of it as they could. Peter had a newfound interest in clothes -rather, a cute saleswoman- so he spent his time in a mall. Egon, as per usual, spent it in his lab. Ray thought it was high time he did inventory at the bookstore and Winston wanted to catch up on the reading he was supposed to be doing for Law school. Once again things looked close enough to normal to fool a casual observer.

Or, that was the case, until one June afternoon. 

* * *

 

The sun had been unmerciful for the past three days and Egon came back from a bust he and Winston had tended to with a heavy head and a mouth so dry that it felt sticky. Winston had taken one look at him and sent him upstairs for water and some rest while went down to empty the traps, so he headed up for the kitchenette and found Janine asleep on the sofa, her shoes discarded to one side and a damp cloth over her face. Once more, she was so still that it was hard to believe her asleep rather than...not. But Egon had been subject to that illusion enough times to become able to fight the urge to check her pulse. Perhaps that was just the way she slept- he didn’t know, despite what Venkman might have thought on the matter. But just as he was walking past her, trying not to make noise, she woke with a strangled gasp, her breathing fast and labored.

“Egon...” came her groggy voice as she lifted her hands to her temples. He flinched guiltily. His first thought was that she had somehow realized he’d been staring, but through the cloth? Or perhaps she had sensed him, the same way she'd been sensing things she had no otherwise way of knowing. Janine squirmed over the sofa and repeated, louder “ _Egon!_ ”

“I’m here” despite himself, her tone put him on edge. She twisted her body, as though prey to a violent ache, hands pressed over her temples, mouth open in a silent scream “Janine?” he hurried to the sofa and removed her hands carefully, as well as the cloth. Her eyes were open and wide and full of pain. Her face glistened with sweat. He fleetingly wondered if she’d broken a fever.

“Something happened to me” she said, reaching for him and he took her hand without stopping to think about it. Her skin was clammy and so cold that he couldn't suppress a surprised flinch when it came in contact with his “I don’t know what, I don’t always remember but I sorta do now. I tried to scream but there was no air. Something held me down and I've been cold ever since.”

“It was a nightmare”

“You were there! You were pounding on the wall!” a sudden coldness ran up Egon’s spine. Halloween night... was she talking about a memory, then? She gritted her teeth, shivering violently, squeezing her eyes shut. He crouched next to the sofa and placed a hand on the side of her face, not surprised to feel her cold under the sheet of sweat covering her "Egon, something's very wrong with me- I think it's killing me"

Panic nibbled at the back of his mind and he forced it down. He couldn't let her see he knew she was under some sort of influence without alerting the entity, but her words were almost more than he could bear.

"Killing you how?"

"I'm disappearing" she whispered in a way that made his stomach drop. She grabbed his hand, tracing something over his palm with her finger, some invisible letter he couldn’t catch “I see that. And orange eyes. I see them every time I go to sleep. Sometimes I open my eyes and they’re still there...” she drifted off "I.. there's more I wanted to say but..." her finger kept tracing the symbol over his palm, over and over again but it’s movement got slower, less defined. Her hand was trembling in a way that made him think of effort rather than cold and her next words were a sigh “I’m so tired"

Her tone was so tearful that Egon felt a knot around his throat. He wasn't the kind of person to feel affected by other people's tears beyond, perhaps, discomfort, but when it came to Janine, he had never quite been able to keep himself from feeling... something for it. He wasn't very sure of  _what_ he felt exactly, just that his body acted somewhat as though he were about to cry as well . His hand found the top of her head and he brushed the strands of hair over her forehead with his thumb. He wished Winston were in the room, he would have known what to say to comfort her. Him? He didn't know what to do. He was useless, yet again. Janine drew in a shaky breath, eyes closing.

“...he’s here”

"Hm?" the meaning of the words caught him a bit unawares and he looked around him warily for a moment, then back at her, but she was looking at him as though confused to see him there. The switch was so sudden and jarring that he almost flinched again. She made a face, brow furrowing, forcing herself to breathe slowly.

“Crap, what am I saying?” she sat up, rubbing her eyes "This is crazy, I'm acting crazy"

“I don't think that's the case” he muttered, moving for her hand again. Her temperature was rising back to a normal level. Part of him wanted to believe it had all been a half-asleep ramble, or a panic attack, but no. He was certain that should he measure her energy levels now, the peak would be back. This was something else. This was the piece he’d been missing, the part he’d forgotten to look. He’d been so caught up with fixing everything through numbers and meters to properly _look_ at Janine even if she was in front of him… then again, wasn’t that always the problem with him? That he was seemingly unable to _really_ look at her even when she was right in front of him?

“No, I am, just-” she breathed out "I mean, if something were wrong, you guys would’ave noticed it, right?”

Her eyes were slightly pleading and he felt a pang of guilt at the amount of trust he had for them, even in her mind-altered state. Would the entity allow her to realize what was going on if he told her? Or would it just take control like it had with Peck, make her believe it was all her?. In any case, secrecy sounded like a good option. He got to his feet, eyes averted.

“Correct”

"Just- just forget I said anything, please- and don't tell the guys? You've all been so worked up lately, and now you finally relaxed, I don't want you all worked up because I _thought_ something was wrong"

He glanced at her for a moment. She had none of the usual tell-tale signs of lying. No eye-shifting, or hand worrying, or even nostril-flaring. Her tone wasn't the tense, slightly more high-pitched one she used when trying to appear calm when she clearly was not. If he was right, things were more serious than he'd initially thought, because she was effectively doubting her senses and the entity was taking it to it's advantage, effectively preventing her from speaking up. Driving a wedge between her and the people who could help her.

“I won’t” he lied, walking away, his fists tight at his sides, a vein thumping on his forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Egon finally has a clue he can actually follow! So now it's all a matter of time... the kind of time Janine might not really have anymore, unfortunately. Yikes.
> 
> Title references to the Studio Yuraki's cover of 'Re:Re' (Erased)
> 
> Next Update on 12/06/2018


	8. Cruel winter chilled the bud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (And stole my flower too soon)
> 
> ...
> 
> (...again, not ominous at all)

****It was far too late for 'Ray's Occult' to be open...which is why it was closed. Still, the lights where on and four figures moved around inside, like the world's most boring shadow theatre.

“Well, I kinda hit the wall with what you'd previously given me” Kylie said, already going from one book to another at amazing speed. Finally, she settled for a heavy, brown leather tome, which she placed over the counter for them to see “Entities linked to mind control, however mild, sleep-walking, seasonal phenomena. Not very specific or anything. But- with the new info there might be something. Maybe.”

“Look for sleep demons and that stuff. Say, Ray, wasn’t there an entity that apparently sits on people’s chests during events of sleep paralysis?” Peter asked, toying with one of the gargoyles on the desk absently “Something about a witch or a-”

“ _Hag_ ” Ray said, eyeing a shelf of books as if trying to discern which one would work for this case

"Your mom"

"No, that's- hey, didn’t you say that this wasn’t anything like that?”

“It’s not, but I figured you’d have a long and well-thought of theory for it as you usually do-”

“Well-”

“If it’s not related to this, I don’t wanna hear it” Winston cut him, eyeing at the book Kylie was scanning through. Next to her, Egon was looking through a book full of weird symbols, so he peeked at that instead “What are you looking at, Egon?”

Egon lifted the paper so Winston could see what was drawn on it, and even if he didn’t know what it was, it still made him feel uneasy on sight.

“Janine kept drawing this shape over my palm with her finger” Egon said, flipping through the pages “I believe she was making sure I would memorize it, on a subconscious level”

“She wouldn’t make a living as a finger-painter"

“Wait, can I see that?" Ray reached for the paper and inspected the symbol closely when Egon handed it to him "Looks like a rune to me. Though I’m not sure I’ve seen anything _exactly_ like that. Could it be a mixture of runes in order to mean one specific thing?”

“I believe it to be just that” Egon said, retrieving the doodle “What I want to know is which symbols specifically”

“ _Wait_ ” Kylie's hand shot for the paper too fast for Egon to even register it. She gave it one look, then released it and ran for the back-store without so much as a word of explanation. Shortly after, she came back with an old tome barely held together by old string on a crystal box. She hurriedly slipped on a pair of gloves before opening the case and taking out the book to flip through it carefully “It’s around here, I know I saw it- _ah-hah_!” she pointed at one page, shifting her feet in gleeful excitement “That’s why I couldn’t find anything, I was looking in the wrong place! Here ya go. _Bith Slugair_ , the life devourer”

“That sounds delightful. We should invite him over to the kids’ parties” Peter said lightly. Winston eyed Egon’s doodle and the page. The symbol was close enough that they could interpret it as that being what Janine saw.

“Good job, Kylie! Is that a celtic name?” Ray asked, eyeing the book from a safe distance.

“Scottish-gaelic” Kylie corrected him “It’s the name they gave to a very, very mean entity. Only one or two texts speak about it, and they come from Saxons who stumbled into Scottish villages and heard about it, and additionally, this is a translation made sometime in the past century, so there’s a chance it’s completely wrong. _But_ , if it isn’t, this would be a very maleficent summoned spirit”

“A demon” Winston sighed, resigned. He was  _so_ done with the whole demonic shebang.

“Kind of, but not exactly” Ray said, leaning over the text, hands safely away from the pages and eyes scanning the words frantically “I mean, in old texts, dæmonaren't necessarily evil spirits, but this one is definitely something dark, even from a non-christian point of view. According to this, in order to be summoned, it had to be offered a person’s _bith_. Their life, their existence and being... I guess it’d be more accurate to say it _absorbed_ them in order to be able to come into this world” Kylie turned the page so he could read the next part and took up on explaining instead of him.

“Most of the anecdotes regarding it spoke of the summoning rune on a slab of stone, either carving it or drawing it with living blood, and then have the victim touch them when the time was right- upon contact, _Bith Slugair_ would absorb the person’s life with one swift blow and come into our world... their life source and even their _soul_ was devoured by this entity” Winston eyed Egon and saw his jaw set at this, his eyes set on the illustration on the book, which depicted a woman in a white, flowing dress being wrapped by what looked like a black blob of ink with a pair of white eyes “The entity would in exchange protect the land it was summoned in from other spirits for years”

“Until such a time as the victim would have died had they not been given to it” Ray specified, looking up at Peter “I guess it means maybe some people could have done it out of their own free will to protect their village, but other times...” he drifted off "They would be forced to, or done it without knowing"

"I gotta say, I'd be pissed to die that way" Peter said, just for lack of anything intelligent to say. 

"Get this, Doc, there's a reason this spirit was used as a guard dog" Kylie said, pointing at another section "It had an ample bag of tricks under its sleeve. Night-terrors, the kind that make big bearded, tattoo-covered men run around screaming like little girls. Could influence people into blood-shed and violence" the illustration showed the victim with threads on their hands and feet, like a puppet "Would 'Call for the sleeping people outside their houses'- that's what it says here, and they'd go, unable to resist the call-"

"And catch their death in the cold!" Ray completed, glancing up at them.

"Infuse the ones under its protection with some supernatural powers. Make them float, give them the power to know the unknown, stuff like that"

"Haven't really seen Janine float yet" Winston said.

"Yet" Kylie repeated. She had a point “You guys say she keeps knowing stuff she has no way of knowing and you saw the way she went for Peck's throat... sounds like this could be your guy. A lot of it fits"

"OK, riddle me this one, then: How did it come to the Big Apple all the way from Europe? And why is he messing with Janine?”

“Maybe...” Ray scratched his jaw and turned back the page to the part that spoke of the rune “Guys, do you figure there’s a chance the wall Janine fell into had a stone with this entity's rune on it?"

"That'd be one hell of a coincidence" Peter deadpanned "...and knowing us, that's exactly what happened" Egon gave a small, sharp intake of breath, realization on his features.

"Back when we were trying to get Janine back, I remember reading something unnerving about Hein's mansion. In order to increase the place's mystic aura, Hein had stones brought from all around the world for it. Including-"

"Scottland" Peter closed his eyes, taking a deep breath "... Sure. Why not"

“A stone with a powerful rune on it would have a very powerful energy imprinted on it at given times. It would make it easier for other manifestations to take place around it”

“Like a level 5 ghost that can create dimensional doors” Winston suggested.

“Say the door was actually located in the exact stone with the rune” Ray said, eyeing Egon.

“There would be significant possibility that the passage would lead to this entity’s dimension of origin via an energetic resonance between the portal and the rune” Egon said, wheels in his head turning “Janine would have entered it without making the necessary exchange for the entity to come out. She wouldn't have entered either of the parameters the entity was used to and it's possible that this caught its eye, along with the equipment she was carrying at the time. Ghostbusting equipment, after all"

"And she _was_ wearing the logo. Provided that the entity understood _what_ it signified..." Kylie suggested.

"Then _we_ would have caught its curiosity as well" Peter nodded.

"The atypical effects of the contact could be due to the atypical way it happened" Ray ventured.

“I guess it's a reach but that's the only explanation that makes sense. Still, _why_ send her back?”

“Maybe it doesn’t like the taste of Brooklyn” Peter quipped.

"I don't think it was intentional" Egon said "It's possible that the same energetic synchronicity that made it possible for her to fall in was repeated in Beltane night, except this time the pull was to the exterior, to our world. So, she ' _Fell out'_ , so to say"

"And she's been under the influence of this thing ever since" Kylie nodded.

“Y’know what all of this reminds me of?” Ray suddenly gasped, eyes wide. Then, he went for the fiction section of the bookstore, halting only a moment to grab one of the thickest books on display there. He rushed back, already looking through it.

“What’cha got there, boy?” Peter asked, the way he might have asked an excited dog.

“Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Can’t go wrong with the classics” the edition was a lovely ancient, leatherback one, with golden swirls around the title.

“Uh, I mean, not that it isn’t a good book and all, boss, but I thought we were looking for stuff that’s...y’know, real” Kylie said.

“And we are, but I think Stoker might have been onto something regarding the parasitic behavior of an entity that feeds off humans... I've speculated on it for a while now. You know, he did make a lot of research and take a lot of inspiration on the things he found; for instance, his tale of ‘The Judge’s house’ draws inspiration on a real episode in New Spain, what we now know as Mexico, kept in the Inquisition's official archive and all” he halted on a passage, smiling triumphantly in a way so reminiscent of how Kylie had done it a while before that Winston had to wonder if there was some reason for Peter to be constantly joking about paternity tests, after all “Gotcha! Here's a thing Renfield says: ' _When Mrs. Harker came in to see me this afternoon, she wasn't the same. It was like tea after the teapot has been watered_ '. Sound familiar?"

Winston realized it was a pretty good way to describe the change they'd observed on Janine lately. When he glanced at Egon, he saw the muscles in his jaw clench.

" _Oh_ " Kylie nodded, understanding lighting her expression "I think I get it"

"I don't" Peter said.

"Look, Dracula bites Mina Harker, but doesn’t actually feed off her the way he did with her friend Lucy Westenra. Instead, he feeds her his own blood in order to create a link between them" Ray chose another passage and read from it in his best Dracula voice " ' _… and you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, kin of my kin..._ ' " he looked up to find Peter and Winston looking at him with expressions that begged for a clearer explanation and cleared his throat "Basically, when Mina eventually passes away, she’ll become a vampire under his command because he made her of vampire kin- she even aquires some vampiric characteristics. He 'Baptized' her with his blood."

"Yeah, I don't think Janine appreciates the whole _baptism_ thing that much" Winston said.

"Did Janine..." Peter started, wrinkling his face in disgust "Drink _something_ or-?"

"No- look, I don't mean it's literally the same, but there are some similarities worth exploring here. Energetic exchange. When a ghost is in our dimension, it can feed off the energy of the place –like they fed off Gozer's or the Mood Slime. Egon experimented with how people's emotions affected the energetic charge of a room so there is a possibility that they feed off the charge generated by people as well"

"If a human in their dimension is subject to similar conditions" Kylie said "Then we could speculate that bunking with an entity would feed them a similar charge on this thing's part"

"It would explain how she survived in there during six months- this thing kept her alive through its own energy!" Ray sounded like he'd forgotten this was a _bad_ thing in his enthusiasm for having solved one of the great puzzles of the situation "Think about it. _Bith Slugair_ feeds Janine it’s energy while she’s in there with it. It both keeps her from dying and creates a link between them. Through their connection he learns from us, Ghostbusters, the kind of people he'd have to watch out from. So, when she's back out, he's determined we don't learn of its existence or the fact that Janine's under its influence, which increases only at given times-"

“ _Sleep_ ” Egon suddenly gasped in realization, before starting to scribble numbers, only pausing to press keys in his calculator “The peak in energy, the one I couldn’t determine a reason for. Peter wasn’t far off as to what caused it but the reasons weren’t the ones he thought of”

“It increased at early morning ‘cause she’d just _slept_ ” Peter rubbed his face "Sometimes I hate being right so much"

"Of course!" Ray gushed "It has long been speculated that sleep is an intermediate level between the world of the dead and our world! This could be the proof!"

“The energy decreased the more time she’d spend awake because it _was_ residual, as I’d speculated at first" Egon continued "But she was exposed to it every time she slept- it’s contacting her every time she goes to sleep” he tapped on the paper, filled to the brim with numbers, as if they explained anything “It checks out”

“And following the parallel here, turns out Janine has a small window to speak freely about it” Kylie pointed at the book in Ray's hands “Mina has only sunrises and sunsets, where Van Helsing hypnotizes her so she can tell them where the Count is- Janine has the few minutes before she’s completely awake. It's the only time she's _allowed_ to realize something's wrong"

"After that and via _Bith Slugair_ 's influence, she convinces herself that nothing is wrong and she’s imagining it” Ray completed "And she says nothing to us because- well, she always deals with bad stuff on her own"

“Like the stubborn asshat she is” Peter sentenced.

“So what happens now?” Kylie asked.

“What do you mean _what happens_? We blast that thing outta her before it makes her do something she might regret. It could make her walk into the traffic. Or into the East River. _Or_ into red district” he took the book from Ray's hands and pointed at another passage " ' _Now you shall come to my call. When my brain says, COME to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my bidding_ '." He threw the book over his shoulder, ignoring Ray's yelp of protest "This guy's already played some old tricks on her, but I got a feeling it's not his worst yet, and he _has_ controlled her a couple of times already"

"It may try to make Janine complete the ritual properly at some point" Egon said somewhat absently, but Winston could see his hands wringing the notes between his fingers so hard that he was surprised they hadn't been torn yet.

"Anything in that book- or even in Dracula, hell, I don't care- we can use?" Winston asked Kylie.

“Not really, not in this book, at least” Kylie said with a sigh.

"I'll check Dracula" Peter said, diving for the tome he'd throw.

"There's gotta be something we can do" Winston insisted.

"Well..." Kylie scratched her head "I guess there _is_ something, but it's a fat chance. Magic and summoning and this kind of shady business is a matter of balance in its essence. So, if there is a rune to summon this thing, there must be a rune that sends it away"

"Fine. Great. Where do we find it?" Kylie seemed to deflate at this.

"Like I said, this is a pretty obscure theme. I doubt if there  _are_ any other books on it in New York, or even the States. I guess there might be some stuff on it elsewhere but..."

"I don't think we've got time for that" Peter pointed out.

"Definitely not" Egon interjected.

"OK, so here's a thought" Kylie tapped on the desk to regain their attention "We can make the rune ourselves"

Peter and Winston blinked at her.

"You can do that?" Winston asked. Ray, however, was already bouncing on the balls of his feet with excitement.

"Sure, we'd need to decipher which rune system this one's based off, but it _can_ be done"

"OK, then what are we waiting for?" Peter chanted as Ray dashed past him and for the books at the corner shelf.

"We gotta keep it quiet, though" Winston warned "After what happened today, this thing's gonna be on its toes and I for one don't wanna be the next one strangled”

“True" Egon said "It seems determined that we think whatever is happening is merely a machination of Janine’s brain... It went so far as to have her tell me she was just over-reacting”

"Yeah, because that's _totally_ something Janine would admit to" Peter scoffed.

“Then we gotta play along” Ray said, choosing book after book and shoving them into one of the dispatch bags they used for clients “Act normal”

Winston eyed them all in turns. Ray emptying half a shelf into a bag that looked ready to burst. Egon filling page after page of numbers, looking alternatively at it and his calculator. Peter making faces at one of the decorative gargoyles on the bookshelves. Kylie looking through the old Saxon chronicle the way one might look through an underwear catalog. He grunted, rubbing his eyelids.

“Yup, that’s the hard part”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EXPOSITION~ EXPOSITION~ GET STUFF OUT ASAP~
> 
> ((Sorry for the delay, a friend's dad passed away and... yeah))
> 
> I'm not even kidding with how 'The Judge's house' is based in a Nueva España anecdote from the Inquisition archives, y'all. Stoker did his homework. Aaaaaaaaanyway, seems like the team finally has a suspect and a plan. What they might lack in this instance, though, is time to act. Mwahaha.
> 
> Title references to 'Love song for a vampire' by Annie Lennox (Because subtlety is my middle name.)
> 
> Next Update on 19/06/2018.


	9. Tomorrow may rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (So I'll follow the sun)
> 
> Our heroes have a lead and a plan and prrrrobably enough time to do something with it.
> 
> You worried yet?

"Honestly, Egon, do you need to lie down?" Ray said with a somewhat despective jerk of his head, eyes on the notepad Egon held. Egon glanced over at him, unamused "The crest of Lugh? Is that what you think we should use?"

"It's a solar motif and not uncommon when dealing with curses" Egon said, a hint of defensiveness in his tone.

"Yeah, no, I'm with Dr. Stanz in this one" Kylie said "I think if it were that simple, praying would suffice to keep it away" Or salt circles. Or holy water. Or mustard seeds. Or wild roses. It wasn't the time for that kind of comment, though, she mused. They'd been at it for most the night, fallen asleep over their notes and then spent the best part of the afternoon on it and were still unable to come up with anything they could use. Half of that time had been used just isolating how many runes had gone into the summoning, going through all the books Ray had brought in excruciating detail. Coming up with a new rune to use or even just finding an already existing one was proving to be even harder. At some point, Egon had just settled for learning random runes in hopes it would work, it seemed. At her comment, though, he muttered a curse and picked up a different book "You got something better than the solar motif, boss?"

"I may have something" Ray muttered, scribbling a symbol on the board hurriedly. Kylie spied over his shoulder "This is the rune that represents 'Life' in the symbol of  _Bith Slugair_. It refers to one's very existence, who you are and what you've done, as well as the life within you still, and it's the 'Base' from where the rune parts, if you will" he scribbled another "The added symbol represents 'Gluttony' I guess in terms of how it would be translated, it'd be something like..." He wrote on the whiteboard: ' _Life + Gluttony = Devourer of Life_ ' and drew a line under ' _Devourer_ '.

"So, literally just the two symbols put together?" Kylie asked "Not very original"

"Yes and no" Ray said, erasing the symbols "You see, when it comes to spells, it's intention before formula. This summoning rune was probably made by some ill-intended dolt with a crappy knowledge of occultism but a pretty big born capacity for it" Kylie wrinkled her nose at this, honestly, some people had all the luck... "But it works because the concept the rune evokes was close enough to what this entity _is._ The rune in itself is just-" he tapped the board "An amalgam of two words put together that conveys a deeper meaning than the words would normally do. Kinda like when you say skyscraper"

"A skyscraper doesn't literally _scrape_ the sky" Kylie realized. Ray pointed at her with the marker, satisfied, the way he might have done in a classroom.

"Exactly. The actual meaning is: A very tall apartment building. It contains very specific concepts that determine whether it's a skyscraper or not, but the actual name we give it is two words that evoke the... impression that you may get when looking at one"

"Starting to wonder if lingüistics aren't a kind of alchemy over here"

Egon raised his eyes to glance at Ray, who returned the glance.

"That's... actually an intriguing thought" Ray said.

"We'll have to look into it when there's more time" Egon nodded.

"Have you guys even remembered to take a coffee break?" The three of them flinched guiltily at Janine's voice. Ray instinctively shifted to cover their annotations on the board. Kylie almost dropped what she'd written so far, managing to save it from falling by the skin of her teeth. Even Egon shifted over his feet, nervous and was careful to keep the notepad he was using facing away from her "You've been up here for hours, at least drink some water- wow, OK, what's going on here and why do you look like I caught you with your hand in the cookie jar?"

"Uh- it's..." Kylie started.

"Very dangerous occult experimentation" Egon said. It wasn't a lie, and probably that was why he said without a hitch- Kylie had seen him stumble into words when he forced to squeeze out a sudden lie a couple of times. Janine seemed to buy it, most likely because of the amount of books lying around and how old they looked, but she wasn't amused.

"Let me see if I got this right, you brought the kid here and kept her from sleeping-?"

"I'm not a- I'm 19 next month!" Kylie protested and was promptly ignored.

"To mess around with old, evil, _dangerous_ spells?" her tone escalated with every word. Egon looked like he was regretting his choice of words "Are you out of your minds, you two?"

"We're not going to summon anything" Ray assured "It's just theory"

"Right, like that time Peter was 'Just looking' in the Infernal Directory and the whole place reeked of sulfur for a month" Janine crossed her arms.

"We are _not_ Peter" Egon said, sounding almost insulted.

"Honestly, Janine, you worry too much... come to think of it, I think you should take the day off. No one's called all morning, it's probably gonna be one of _those_ days and you may not wanna be around if we, uh, mess it up with these spells"

She wasn't impressed by that either.

"You trying to get rid of me, Ray?" She hissed, eyes narrowed at him. He backed away immediately.

"Wha- no! I'm just saying-"

"Look" Janine sighed, seeming resigned "Just be careful with this stuff, OK? It's giving me the creeps just standing here" Kylie shot Egon a quick glance and he gave her a discreet nod- yes, it was probably a good sign "If you summon something up, I'm gonna kick three sets of butt-cheeks, got it?"

"Got it" three voices said in unison.

"Is that a yes to taking the day off?" Ray asked. She scoffed as she turned to leave.

"Who am I to say no to that? I'm making coffee first, though, in case anyone feels like taking a break soon"

"Alright! Thanks, Janine" Ray said, grinning at Egon and Kylie, approaching them to continue in a hushed whisper, Janine's footballs moving further from them "I don't know why I didn't think of giving her the day off earlier. Could have saved us a lot of stress"

"We slept like three hours today, cut yourself some slack" Kylie replied.

"Hm" Egon was immersed in his annotations again "I believe we might be on good track"

"Yeah, I think the entity just recoiled at what we're doing here- oh, oh wait, that could be bad" Kylie mused, pausing "It could suspect something's up"

"Unlikely" Egon said, although his posture became somewhat tense "It doesn't know how much we know and it didn't see anything incriminating. For all it knows, we're just poking into uncomfortable topics out of mere curiosity"

"Which would be in-character"

"Hm?"

"Nothing, thinking out loud. OK, so, Boss, if I understood right, you're suggesting we need to fabricate the opposite concept of what 'Life' plus 'Gluttony' would mean, right?"

"Yeah" Ray yawned "It's trickier than it sounds, because it has to convey the right intention, the right concept, or it might even make things worse"

"What _is_ the opposite of gluttony?" Kylie asked, scribbling down what they'd concluded on in her own notes "Abstinence? Hunger?"

Egon raised his face, brow furrowed.

"I believe we might want to use less dangerous words" he said "The word 'Abstincence' could make the _Bith Slugair_ stop feeding off Janine, but possibly not free her from its influence, and 'Hunger' could make everything worse"

"Dang" Kylie sighed. It was very easy to mess up in this kind of situation and she was too tired to come up with anything better. She sat down with her back against the wall for a bit and closed her eyes. Ray's steps shuffled close to her and then the feet of a chair scrapped the ground.

"I wonder if the coffee'll be ready soon" he muttered with another yawn.

* * *

 _Something's off_ , she realized. Janine almost scoffed to herself, pouring spoonful after spoonful of grounds into the coffee maker. Yeah, what else was new? There was always something, that was just the job. And since her awakening in that basement the feeling that something was off never really did go away. She didn't even dare dwell too much on the fact that no one had mentioned her strangling Peck more than as a passing joke, because it was possible that this level of bizarreness was just her new normal and the more she could pretend maybe it wasn't the case, the better.

Janine wasn't stupid, she knew she'd escaped Peck calling the cops on her by the skin of her teeth and probably only because the guys had reached some sort of agreement with him, and she would have been lying if she'd pretended the matter didn't worry her. Not only for what it implied to owe a favor to someone like Peck, but because to the day she had no idea of what had come over her. She supposed it was possible that it was just what Peter had suggested: A delayed reaction to the trauma she'd experienced, a symptom of the PTSD she'd been nursing for more than a month now. But somehow it sounded to her like the exact kind of cop-out answer Peter often criticized radio psychologists for, and she had to wonder how bad the real answer had to be for him to bother making a fake one up.

 _They're doing something they shouldn't be doing up there_ , the nagging feeling was back with a vengeance as she closed the filter compartment and pushed the buttons on the coffee maker. This time she did laugh. No shit, Sherlock.

No shit.

Whatever it was they were working on upstairs, she wasn’t gonna like it, that much was for sure. For one, the skin-crawling feeling that had taken over her from the moment she'd gotten a brief, very brief glance of Kylie's notes as she saved them from falling to the ground, hadn't quite left her yet. On top of that now she had a headache, the kind she was sure would make it hard to keep her eyes open, much less drive and her ears were ringing so much that hearing her own thoughts was getting hard. She was sure something in that thing Kylie had doodled was to blame... oh well, it was the exact kind of dumb accident that usually happened to her, no sense to dwell too much on it. She was just sorry that the amount of caffeine she'd consumed throughout the day made her wary of taking any pills for it.

She eyed the open garage door. Peter and Winston had gone out to a previously programmed bust and wouldn't be back for a while- and it was probably better to try and get Winston to make Ray, Egon and the kid to lie down before they fell over. She could also use some fresh air, and maybe getting away from whatever dark shennanigans were taking place upstairs would lessen the headache. She headed for the door, empty-handed.

The street was warm with sunlight when she stepped out and she all but groaned, until the cool breeze came to cool her face and even make her shiver a little. Ah, that was the stuff. She stretched her back, stood on her tippy toes for a moment and then her heels and moved her head from side to side... and then she noticed the sky was golden.

Janine set her eyes above, not understanding for a moment, then she found the sun, already lowering on the horizon, perfectly squeezed between the buildings on either side of the street as if they had been built with fitting it in mind. Hell, maybe they _had_. She'd have to ask Ray later. Still, this wasn't really an everyday thing, it was- oh. Oh. Right, she'd been so caught up with one worry after another that she'd even forgotten what day it was. She smiled under the golden light, closing her eyes in bliss, and didn't even realize that her consciousness was slipping away as she did. To her, it was all just the glorious haze of losing herself into the golden light.

* * *

 "-ke up. Spengler! " Egon jerked awake with a grunt to find Peck staring at him with bewildered eyes, a very groggy-looking Kylie next to him, as well as a frankly still asleep Ray "You sleep on your _feet_?"

"Occasionally"

"I guess we all needed that coffee more than we thought" Kylie yawned.

"Hm" he adjusted the glasses and looked at the notes in his hand. He could see the place where his writing had stopped making sense, so he drowned a yawn with the back of his hand, scratching the offending line to transcribe the thought cleanly further down "What is it you wanted, Mr. Peck?"

"Your secretary isn't at the front desk" Peck said accusingly.

"Ray gave her the day off" Egon replied, looking at his watch. That had been more than two hours ago. Surely she'd gone home by now.

"Why did she leave her car behind, then?"

That woke Ray up.

"Her car" he repeated, his tone anxious.

"You sure?!" Kylie squeaked.

"I _did_ go through the necessary paperwork to recover it, so, yes, Miss Griffin, I'm pretty sure"

Egon realized he should be moving when Kylie hurried to the stairs and all skipped her way down them. Ray didn't bother, going directly for the pole, so he followed.

There was no one at Janine's desk, but the coffee machine was purring in Venkman's office. Kylie ran to the garage door, nearly running onto Ecto-1’s snout in the process.

"Watch it, kid, I could'ave-!" Winston called through the driver's window, but Kylie didn't even stop to apologize, still headed for the street "Hey, where are you-?"

"Janine's gone" Ray cried.

“ _What?_ ”

“Her car's still there alright!" Kylie called, running back in. Her eyes were very wide.

"Calm down, kid" Peter said, coming out of the car "Maybe she went to get donuts or something"

"Not without her purse" Winston said, lifting the alluded object from the desk. Peter grimaced.

“ _Shit._ Ohhh _,_ Raaaaay!" he reached for the alluded and grabbed him by the ear, not hard enough to really hurt him but still earning a grimace "Did she find out what you three were doing?”

"Ow- I- I don't know, I don't think so!"

"You sure you're sure?"

"M-maybe she saw a thing or two, I don't know!"

"We fell asleep" Egon said between his teeth "In the time we were out –an hour, maybe an hour and a half- she could have seen everything and found out what we were doing"

“This is bad-” Kylie started.

“Understatement of the goddamn century, kid" Peter said, releasing Ray "Where could she have gone? Egon?"

"Considering that the entity will most likely try to keep Janine away from us as much as possible to avoid the measures we could take to end his influence over her-" Egon heard a crack and realized he'd broken the pen within his grasp. He looked at it absently for a moment before discarding it "...she most likely went into hiding. From us specifically" she could be walking aimlessly through the city, for instance. She could be walking into traffic, as Peter had said the night before.

"She's been gone less than two hours and on foot, she can't have gone _that_ far, then" Ray said, going for the part of the archives where they kept the maps "The real question here is _where_ "

“I may have a very good idea of where she’s headed” Kylie said, grabbing Janine's desk calendar to show it to Ray “Boss, eyes here. What does it say?”

“June 21- _oh_ ” Ray’s jaw dropped.

"Very well, Stanz, I'm glad you've figured how to read a calendar" Peck intervened, looking more than a little irked that he didn't understand one bit of what was going on "In what way is this relevant, Miss Griffin?"

"It's the summer solstice. The ritual can only be done with certain season-related phenomena- the solstice is _perfect_ for it"

“This is great, this is just great. The brightest minds in New York and they _somehow_ forgot to check the dates” Peter said, before pointing at Ray “You, car” Then Egon “You, get dressed and then car” he turned to Winston, who was already moving either way “You, car” he pointed at Kylie “You. Stay here, this ain’t gonna be pretty” Kylie opened her mouth to protest but Peter was already turning to Peck “You- you’re coming with”

“ _What_?” four voices cried in unison.

“How much you wanna bet that Lester’s gonna try to keep us out of his property? Only Pecker can pull the law babble that'd get him to let us in”

“And you think I’m going to tag along with this because...?” Peck said, raising both eyebrows in challenge.

“Look, man” Winston interceded, his tone severe but trying to stay calm “You can dislike us all you like and make things hard for us for no good reason, but- this isn't about us, it's about Janine. Please. Don't leave her hangin' just to mess with us”

Peck stared at him, straightening up, considering it.

“I call shotgun” he finally said, moving for the opposite door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time's running out.
> 
> Title inspired by a The Beatles song.
> 
> Next update on 21/06/18


	10. To dim the sun before the summer ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moment of truth is here.

“I thought we had agreed you wouldn’t be needed here anymore! Ever!” Lester protested, coming down the stairs of the mansion he had swiped from Sam Hein’s hands, wringing his hands.

“You lifted the restraining order yourself, Mr. Lester” Winston defended as he came out of Ecto-1, on the other side, Peck followed suit, straightening his jacket.

“Correct, and, might I remind you that you’d previously offered full cooperation in anything you could regarding Miss Melnitz’s situation?”

“Oh, for all-" he sighed, running a hand through his scarce, white hair "What is it now?”

“It’s simple, you seen her around here somewhere, Artie?” Peter said as he approached, looking around. The light was really going to the dogs at this point, but he was pretty sure if Janine were somewhere around there, he'd see her.

“No. Of course not!" Lester wheezed "I don’t even want to see her ever again-!”

“You sure?”

"Well, I mean, she did have a nice pair of legs, but-"

"No, you _sure_ you haven't seen her?"

“Security would have notified me if they’d seen her”

"Maybe she hasn't arrived yet" Ray said. Egon took out the meter and turned it on. It sprung to life immediately and whatever it was telling, he didn't like it.

"If she hasn't, the activity in the basement is still very powerful"

"Activity-? What-? What activity? I closed down that damn place weeks ago. What would she be doing there, anyway?”

“It’s likely that she is being drawn to the basement yet again by the same supernatural entity that held her captive during six months” Egon said flatly, walking past Lester. The man all but wailed.

“Supernat-?! What-?! You’re kidding!”

“OK, Artie, I know you and us haven’t really hanged around that much" Peter said, surrounding him with an arm "So here’s a tip. Egon never jokes”

“But- Look, even if she _were_ here- and she's not! She can’t enter the basement. I sealed it”

“Sealed it _how_?” Ray asked.

“Put bars on it, a gate, and only I hold the key. No one can get in there anymore. Made people around here feel a bit safer if _nothing_ can get out”

"That really wouldn't have done anything against an ectoplasmic entity..." Ray pointed out.

“Show us to the basement” Egon said. His tone admitted no negative and Lester noticed, seeming intimidated. Perhaps he was thinking about what he’d seen on Halloween night, the kind of pent up rage that seemed to dwell under Egon’s cold exterior, and how unpleasant it would be to be on the receiving end of that rage.

“I tell you, it’s useless, it’s closed!”

“Please. We insist” Winston came to stand next to Egon, cracking his knuckles distractedly- Peter felt the urge to laugh. Sure, they looked pretty intimidating, but Winston would never hit an old coot, even if it _was_ Artie Lester and Egon knew how to throw a decent punch by mere instinct but was still more like a skirmishing cat than an actual, dangerous human being when in a real fight. Nevertheless, Lester gulped.

“...fine! Just...don’t break anything this time”

Peck wasn’t amused.

“You _are_ aware that I just witnessed you people intimidating an old man into letting you into his home, right?”

“Hey, he said  _please_ ”

* * *

 

The second Lester opened the studio door, Egon ran to the secret passage to pull it open, and then rushed down the basement stairs in such a hurry that he almost collided against the barred door that stood at the base of the stairs, and almost wasn’t surprised to see it lit with an eerie orange light coming from the junctures of the bricks, even through the mountains of junk Lester had piled in there in the past months. A familiar shape stood in front of it, swaying slightly, as though moved by an invisible breeze.

“Janine!” Winston called behind him.

“I- she couldn’t have gotten in!” Lester called near the secret door, not entering the stairs “Everything was locked, even the studio upstairs, you saw it!” Egon wrestled with the gate. It was locked indeed.

“The key!” Peter demanded.

“I-it’s in my study, inside a safe”

“Go get it, right now!”

Winston aimed his thrower at the door.

“No time- Egon, move it or lose it!”

“Not that anyone will listen, but I would advice not to damage anything in the property” came Peck’s tired voice.

“Hold your fire, that won’t work” Egon said, eyeing the bars. The metal was new, the proton beam would probably just melt the lock and _then_ they’d be in for it.

“What can we do?” Winston asked, despair seeping in his tone.

“Which one has the rune?” Peter asked, his tone serious for once.

“I’ll take a wild guess and say the glowing one” Winston said, pointing at a brick that was lit like a burning coal.

“Stop her! If she touches that, she’s lost!” Ray cried “Janine!”

“She's not moving yet. What is she waiting for?” Peck asked under his breath.

“For the sun and moon to be in position” Egon muttered, wishing he had his watch on him, or that they had any sort of window to look out through "We have to somehow get to her before that happens"

“Miss Melnitz, touch that and you’re fired!” Peck called. There was a silent beat.

“What the _fuck_ , Pecker!” Peter shrilled.

“I had to try”

“Try better!”

“Janine, fight it!” Winston called “Fight that thing! You gonna let yourself be controlled by some loser spirit?”

“Yeah, big J, no one bosses you around except me!”

“ _Peter_ -”

“I’m nervous, that’s how I cope- Janine! C’mon! Don’t let it make you!”

"Use that stubbornness of yours for something good, Miss Melnitz!" Peck tried this time.

“Come back to us, Janine!” Ray called “You gotta come back!”

The knot around Egon’s throat was too tight to allow him to call out for her as the rest of them continued to demand or even beg Janine to stop. His hands tightened around the bars of the gate, pulling compulsively, his teeth gritting. Stupid hands. Stupid gate! She wasn’t responding, she couldn’t hear them, she was going to-

‘ _Calm down. Think of something. Think_ ’

He eyed for the instruments nearest to the door, his eyes catching some unidentifiable long, metallic objects, perhaps for the chimney, trying to determine whether he could use them for something or-

“She’s moving!” Peck pointed. She was, Janine’s quivery hand was raising slowly, as if restricted by a great weight. She was going to touch the rune. Egon’s stomach dropped, in a flare of panic, he reached blindly for anything, anything he could use. His hand closed around something smaller than he expected and it broke under his frantic grasp- Egon swore under his breath, retrieving his hand to clutch it. Glass? He somehow had managed to grab a small container, similar to the ones used for _tequila_ , instead of the tools he'd meant for. Even through the glove, shards of glass stabbed at his palm, blood slowly but steadily filling the rubber around his fingers. With a guttural sound, he removed the shards as best as he could and charged again, reaching, trying frantically to grasp something he could use to try and force the gate and-

“Look!” Ray called. Egon risked looking up. The hand that had precariously risen was being held back by Janine’s other hand “She’s fighting back!”

“The key!” came Lester’s voice behind them, somewhere still in the ballroom and his footballs approaching with as much speed as the old geezer could manage “I got it!”

Janine was shaking all over, as if from a huge effort. Egon remembered her exhausted face, her tired and sad eyes when she had managed to come through and talk to him without intervention at the firehouse, and was almost overcome by emotion. _Bith Slugair_ had hounded her for months, refusing to let her rest, toying with her sanity, trying by every way possible to break her. It just hadn't counted on Janine being unbreakable. Through it all, she still refused to give up. She was still fighting, even uncoscious. The knot on Egon’s throat was refusing to losen, but he had to scream, or else, explode. His voice came out broken and hoarse in a way he wouldn't have suspected of himself.

“ _Janine!"_

She started, her back straightening as though by force of an electric charge.

“...Egon?” she turned, her voice was groggy. The hand reaching out for the glowing brick fell. Egon felt the very breath come back to his body, as seemingly did the four men behind him.

“Janine, step away from that wall!” Ray instructed, trying to sound calm.

“Guys-? Where the _hell_ are we?” she looked around, eyes setting on the cage suspended above them “Wait-” she looked around again, seemingly recognizing the place “ _Waitaminute_ \- what the hell am I doing here again?”

“Give it here” Peck growled, all but ripping the key from Lester’s hands, impatient, and passing it to Winston “Open that goddamn door!”

“I’m on it!” Winston called back, annoyed, tinkering with the lock “But you all gotta take a step back or I won’t be able to open it”

“Janine, come to the door! We’re busting you out right now” Peter said. She obeyed, hands grasping the bars as soon as she was near.

“I don’t know what that glow is but it’s not good, right?” she asked, looking over her shoulder nervously.

“More like very bad. Very, very bad. Winston?”

“I’m on it!” the key resisted in his grasp, Janine, impatient swatted his hands away to turn the key herself. The lock clicked, they took a step back, ready to let Janine through-

-just as an invisible force decided to pull her back, snarling and growling. She screamed and tried to hold onto the door, kicking and squirming, trying to free herself.

“Grab her!” Ray cried, as Egon hurried forward to take her by the wrist to help her resist the pull, one hand barely reaching her before she slipped from the bar, and held on to him, pulling him against the bars with his other hand unable to reach her. His shoulder complained at the strain as did the wound on his palm. His glove, slick with blood by now, threatened to slip right out of his hand. Winston passed his arms around Egon’s torso and tried to pull him back. Ray and Peter and even Peck pulling him back respectively. The room seemed to quake with another deep growl that had the trinkets scattered around the basement tinkering the way they might have if someone had started a tractor in the room. Lester, naturally, ran away.

“It's not supposed to be able to do that!” Ray said in the tone one might use to accuse another child of cheating at a kindergarden.

“Well, he’s doing it, Ray!” Peter yowled.

“If it's consumed enough energy to breach into our world already, then-”

“Shut up and pull!” Peck grunted, face pressed against Winston's arm as he used his entire weight to keep him from slipping further down the stairs.

“Janine, hold on!” Winston called.

“I’m _trying_!” she barked, focusing her energy on holding on. Another snarl-like sound crossed the air and bruises like fingers appeared on her forearm, as if an invisible hand were pulling from it. Her fingers slipped a couple of inches more and Egon tried frantically to get a good grasp on her again. His shoulder was all but encrusted into the bars painfully at this point, but his mind was just a muddle of silent prayers to no one in particular, leaving no place for pain.

Janine’s hand slipped another inch and he scrambled to regain it, ignoring the way his arm felt like it might be torn off soon, if the glove didn't slip out of his hand before that. Frustration bit at him, thumping around his temples and his tightened jaw. He was going to fail her again. His stupid hands were going to let go of her again. He could feel his entire arm trembling with effort. Teeth bared, eyes stinging, he twisted his wrist to try and regain the inches he’d lost to the force, neck twisting against the bars to give his arm more length. Please, please, _please-!_

“Egon-”

“Hold on-" his voice was a breathless grunt due to effort and pain "Just hold on, I’ve got you!” the glove slid another inch and she whimpered. He had to think of something, there wasn’t any time. He had to-

“Listen. Egon, listen!" he tried to twist enough to glance at her, even through the corner of his eyes. He wanted to look at her. He _needed_ to look at her. His cheek was all but smushed against the gate, sticking his head in a position where he couldn't even look at her through the corner of his eyes, try as he might. Janine's breath came out in a sob " _Listen_. It’s not your fault, OK?”

For one second longer, her hand quivered in his, holding on, then, the glove and her fingers slipped out of his grasp, leaving him still trying to grasp at nothing. Janine drew in a sharp breath and there was a flash of blinding light.

“Janine!”

“No!”

“ _Janine_!!”

Egon couldn’t scream. The air was frozen in his throat as he all but collapsed against the gate, his hands numb. There was a sound of suction, like the a rush of air going through a tunnel. Then, it died down, taking the glow of the bricks with it. Egon's eyes where on the wall in front of him as the light died down. This was happening to someone else, miles and miles away from him and yet every sound was cristal clear in his ears. Winston was muttering something that sounded like a prayer. Peter was cursing. Ray kept muttering Janine's name in incredulity, his breath ragged and shivery. Peck was cursing too. Then, among those sounds, the sound of something slipping against stone and then a dull thud that brought him back to reality. This was happening. It was real.

She was gone.

‘ _It’s not your fault, OK?_ ’

He screwed up his face, trying to breathe. Yes it was. _Yes it was_. All of it, all of it... Egon had never had any sort of orifice in his chest, but he was pretty sure that having a gaping hole would feel very much the way he felt.

“What the hell is _that_?!” came Peck’s voice after a moment of silence. He raised his face and found himself looking into a pair of bright orange eyes, looking at him from blackness deeper than blackness. Over them, on what would be the forehead of the entity, the rune of the _Bith Slugair_ glowed lazily.

“ _Ah, Ghostbusters, we meet face-to-face at last_ ” the voice was a sticky, hoarse sound that reminded him of the suction sound mud made under one’s foot... but, more sickening, it had a slight Brooklyn twang to it. It would have been amusing in how jarring it was in any other context “ _I must say I expected more, what with the wonders Janine thought of you four. Even you, Peter. You and that constant competition between your mouth and your heart to decide which one's bigger. And Ray. Little Ray of Sunshine. Could make a stone excited about being a stone. Winston, the hero. A regular Superman. Even Peck here, she thought could be kinda nice when he wasn’t too busy being a_ schmuck _. And, of course: Egon. Brilliant, UNREACHABLE, beloved Egon_ ”

Unreachable. Somewhere in the numbness that his mind was at the moment, Egon registered a pang of ache.

“I’ve had about enough of you” Winston said between his teeth, pulling Egon back to pull the door open. He walked into the basement floor, thrower aimed. Egon heard Ray and Peter arming theirs as well and followed suit mechanically, trying to avoid setting eyes on the pale, small form of Janine’s body resting against the wall, barely lit by the light coming from the entity's forehead and the open door. _Bith Slugair_ looked at them with a distinct air of amusement.

“ _It was pretty exciting, slipping right under your noses all these weeks. Completely unnoticed. I must admit it became a game to me, see how long it took you to notice I was there, lead you off when you were getting close. So exciting!_ _This one almost ruined the fun”_ it made a vague notion towards Peck, who let out an odd, throaty ‘Eep’ “ _But I put him in place- or I made her do it. It messed her up a bit inside._ _T_ _hought she was going_ _nuts_ _-_ _thought of asking you for help so many times but I wouldn’t have it. I might have as well cut her tongue!_ ”

“Son of a _bitch_ ” Ray choked out. Four proton throwers aimed at blacker-than-black. The entity’s taste for taunting them was going to be it’s downfall.

“ _And then you started with your stupid runes, trying to cut my game short- well, the game’s over, but I won. I’d won from the start. She was mine from the moment I set eyes on her and there was nothing you could do”_ Egon felt his fingers twitch at this, longing for something to hit “ _You might have as well enjoyed her a bit longer before I finally ate her whole- like I will eat many others”_

“Eat _this_ -!” Peter snapped. For once there wasn’t even one hint of playfulness in his voice “Fire!”

Despite all its tough talk, the impact of four proton beams had _Bith Slugair_ letting out ear-piercing shrills of pain. Egon supposed he should have felt something for it, anything, but couldn't muster strength to do it. A part of him was furious. A part of him wanted to tear it to pieces with his bare hands, but that part of him was buried between what seemed to be kilometers and kilometers of empty air just struggling to breathe, to avoid processing what had happened.

“Egon, ready the trap!” Ray called.

“Wish we could blow this bastard the hell up instead” Winston said. Egon found himself distantly sharing the sentiment as he readied the trap mechanically- Peck let out a loud gasp.

“She’s-! She’s moving! Her hand!”

Egon felt as though reality, color, sound, everything were being shoved back into his head with one clean movement, his eyes finally setting upon Janine. Impossible-! But, was she-?

In the dim light, he could see her hand _was_ moving. Closing. As if squeezing something that wasn't there.

“Cease fire!!” Egon called over the sound of the proton beams, his mind back on track and running in full speed.

“Are you crazy!?” Peter barked.

“We can’t trap him- he has to give Janine’s _Bith_ back or she'll inevitably die”

“How do we make it do that?” Winston asked over the sound of their proton throwers still firing, refusing to let the bastard go lest it escape. Egon’s hand tightened over the thrower and his palm burned, reminding him of the cut there. He glanced at it for a moment, eyes widening. That was it! He unstrapped his proton pack and ran to Peck, putting it between his hands.

“What are you doing?!” Peck demanded, looking at the proton pack as though it were a ticking bomb.

“What I am about to do is unstable enough without nuclear equipment on my back”

“ _What_?!”

Without any other words, Egon dove under the proton beams and the floating entity, towards the place were Janine laid against the wall. He crouched next to her, kneeling with a leg on either side of hers to press his fingers to her neck. Alive, yes. _Barely_. He’d have time to figure _how_ exactly later. Now he had a task. He closed his injured hand into a fist, soaking his fingers as much as he could into the blood still seeping from his palm, then got to work.

What had Ray said? _‘Glutton’_ and _‘Life’_ put together to form a concept, not as independent ideas. They needed the opposite in its spiritual sense… he traced the symbol of life over the stone and then paused, racking his brain for what came next. Instead of consuming mindlessly, of devouring for the sake of devouring… he thought of the way Winston would have taken the shirt off his back to give it to those in need. What word would he use to describe that? What word was Winston in his essence? Giver? Sharer? No. Justice? It was way to abstract a concept, it could have an entirely unexpected effect to use it. Generous? Not quite-

“It’s breaking out!” Ray groaned with effort. Egon ventured a look back to see the _Bith Slugair_ pulling from the proton beams like a stubborn trout refusing to be fished. Then, unexpectedly, the fourth proton beam joined and helped pull it back. Peck stood on shirt-sleeves, Egon’s pack strapped to his back, thrower shaking in his hands, threatening to escape his grasp, face glistening with sweat, teeth bared with effort.

“Whatever it is you’re doing” he called between gritted teeth, trying not to let himself be dragged around “You better hurry the hell up, Spengler!”

He was right, Egon turned back to the wall and tried to think. Gluttony meant devouring, destroying. His eyes fell on Janine, laying against the wall, looking pale and almost not breathing, and the urge that had been stirring within him for the past month, the same that had made him take her hand as they ran out of the firehouse with the Containment Unit breaking open behind them and not let go until she was out of danger’s way, racked through him. A flash of copper between her gloved fingers ‘ _It’s_ _my lucky coin..._ ’. She had given it to him, she had given it to him because she wanted to-

“ _Protect_ ” Egon muttered to himself, triumphant, and he traced the symbol of ' _Protector_ ' over the symbol of life. He closed his eyes for a moment, begged the rune to _please_ work and then opened them and pressed his palm over it.

A cool blue stream of energy lit within the entrails of the stone and then flooded the basement. He heard the same suction sound as before, except the tunnel was _him_. Behind him, _Bith Slugair_ let out a deafening cry.

“It’s working!” Ray called “Cease fire in three...two...one...now!”

The sounds of the throwers died down, but the suction and the entity’s despaired cries remained, accents and voices changing one after the other, too fast to be fully identified. It’s blacker-than-black body was turning into fine mist. It went from looking like a fog into not being there at all. Egon’s hand finally left the rune and he fell to the floor on all fours, feeling as though electricity had been plugged directly into his spine. He could see his hands aglow with an eerie golden tinge.

“Egon!” Ray called “You alright?”

“Fine, Ray”

“Spengz- you’re glowing!” Peter called from a safe distance, pulling Ray back as well.

“Energetic excess” he said between breaths. There was too much inside him, he felt like he could burst.

“That’s all Janine’s life, then?” Winston asked. He nodded, trying to breathe “Well, put it back in her!”

“ _How_?” Peter asked.

Yes, that was the right question. _How?_ He hadn’t gotten quite as far in his head. Egon looked at Janine, laying with her back against the wall, her chest had gone still. He touched her neck. The pulse was so weak he could barely feel it. _No time_. He had to think of something and fast. His hand still bled. He took one look at the blood and then at Janine’s lips.

“Egon?” Winston was still waiting for a response. Egon pressed the wound to his lips and took a deep breath, the kind one takes before plunging into cold, deep water for the first time on a scorching day.

Then he leaned forward and kissed Janine fully on the lips.

Behind him, Peck let out a string of indignant noises. Peter whistled.

“ _Al-right, Egon_!”

“His blood is the conductor and he’s the battery” Ray said, in the tone of someone realizing something obvious.

“So, is he gonna _plug in_ or-” _SLAP_ “Ow-! What?”

“Does every case where the affected is a woman end with one of you _kissing_ them?” Peck asked, his voice shrill with indignation. Egon squeezed his eyes shut, letting everything slide further away from his mind, everything that wasn’t the contact of her cold lips upon his, and how they were slowly warming up as the light coming from him died out, leaving them in twilight again.

Janine drew in air sharply against his mouth and Egon immediately backed off. Even in the scarce light, he could see her eyes were wide and alert as she set them on him, questioning. He cleared his throat, readjusting his glasses over his nose. They were inexplicably foggy.

“That should do it” he strangled out.

She blinked at him… then flung her arms around his neck and kissed him with everything she had.

“Seriously?” Peck groaned. Egon found himself not caring, at least until his treacherous brain decided to finally make some space for something that wasn’t kissing her and he placed his hands on her shoulders, gently coaxing her away. He could all but sense the disappointment as her skin left his, but his hands traveled down and took her hands, squeezing them for a moment, feeling the warmth coming from them. Alive. Alive and complete again. Emotion threatened to well up within him and he swallowed audibly, before clearing his throat again.

“So”

“So” she replied.

“You...you seem to be well” he somehow managed to mutter.

“Never better” her voice had a smile on it and she squeezed his hands back. Ray, unable to hold back any longer, all but collapsed to his knees next to her and pulled her into a tight hug “ _Oop!_ Ray! I’m OK!”

“I know! I’m just so happy-!” Ray started, as Winston crouched on Janine’s other side and hugged her as well.

“Guys, you’re not trying to get us to do the group-hug thing, are you?” Peter groaned. For all response, Winston’s arm shot back to pull him down. Determined to not going down alone, Peter pulled a very disgruntled Peck with him, just as Ray pulled Egon into the hug as well. Janine was thoroughly squeezed for a while but she didn’t seem to mind, even if Peck squirmed and tried to escape their grasp like an angry cat at first. Eventually he settled down, perhaps figuring it was best to suffer through it with some dignity, muttering that he was, of course, glad to see Miss Melnitz was fine but _could they just-_

“Alright, OK, that’s enough sugar for a lifetime” Peter said, backing off “Anyone mind telling me how Janine escaped that one?”

“I had help” she shrugged their bewildered looks off “No one you guys know. He held my hand and told me to hang on just a little longer”

Peter looked at Egon accusingly, but Egon shook his head. No, he didn’t know either. Perhaps, upon returning to the firehouse he could scan her and run the new data in comparison with-

Janine’s hand was still on his and she squeezed again, as if she’d read his mind and were warning him to not even _think_ about it. Alarm coursed through him for a moment... and then he realized he’d been muttering. Ah. Perhaps he could let it be for the time being.

“I gotta say, Wally Wick, you have a mean aim for a pencil-neck” Winston said as they got to their feet. Peck made a face “Though, what happened to it being just a light show?”

“I concede nothing” Peck said, but he looked somewhat satisfied. The adrenaline of the bust or simply relief that they weren't frauds after all?

“OooooK, I’ve seen enough weird for today” Peter said, putting an arm around Janine “How about we leave this stupid basement for good and go get some grub? Summer’s here!”

* * *

 

The sun was barely a hint of fire behind the horizon by the time they left the Lester estate -much to Lester and Peck’s relief- with Peck’s jacket thrown over Janine’s shoulders and her hand on Egon’s. The equinox was coming to an end.

Unseen to them, a shadowy figure sat over one of the tree branches, beaming in the last rays of sun.

“I always pay my debts, red” the ghost of Sam Hein, his human shape recovered, whispered, paling and fading under the evening air “Take good care of her, Ghostbusters” he muttered as Egon helped her into Ecto-1 and then climbed behind her, eyes soft and warm on her “She’s a real jewel”

By the time the words ended, the branch was empty. Sam Hein’s last unsolved piece of business on this side of the veil had been settled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The happy ending! Or at least, part of it.
> 
> Title references to another song from Dracula the Musical
> 
> Next update (Epilogue) tomorrow!


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big baddie's gone, Janine's saved, the guys went to get burgers. What could be missing? Unless...

“Seriously, I just need to know, to be mentally prepared” Peck said, his tone dry “How many lawsuits for sexual harassment am I going to be dealing with, here?”

“S’not like that” Winston sighed, digging for the last of his french fries on the cardboard and grabbing his hamburger when he couldn’t find any “Look, it was just a kiss, alright-?"

"Two. And another one in the car on the way here"

"And another one just coming in here" Kylie added, finishing her nuggets with the face of someone who could very well eat twice as much as they'd just ate. She hadn't seemed at all entertained by the kiddie meal package they'd brought her, but since the contents were still to her liking...

"-and Janine’s been giving Egon the googly eyes for _ages_ now” Winston continued.

“Honest” Peter piped in, reaching an arm over Peck's shoulders to steal some fries from him “Since day one”

"And Egon- well, y’know, he's not the kind to give a person googly eyes, but-"

"He makes graphs about her"

"And they say romance is dead" Kylie snorted.

“And the kiss _was_ necessary. To reestablish Janine’s energy levels to normal” Ray added, throwing his empty wrappers into the trash bin “We’re kind of lucky Egon came up with a good transference method on the spot, she would have died otherwise”

“Yes, but- aren’t there _other_ methods?” Peck insisted, stretching to keep his fries out of Peter's reach.

“Well, there _are_ some, but they’re, ahem, a bit more...” Ray gestured vaguely with his hands, looking for an acceptable term.

“The kind you’d find in Venkman’s private library?” Peck asked, looking very, very tired.

“Hey!” Peter sputtered.

“Pretty much, yeah" Ray nodded "Tantric sex, if Egon had wanted to be thorough about it. So, y'know... it could have been worse”

“Uh, guys...where _are_ those two?” Winston asked, looking very uncomfortable all of a sudden.

The five of them froze. Somewhere in the distance, they could catch a faint sound. A sort of knocking, like a pipe, maybe a metal bedside against bricks. The creaking of a mattress. Slow, but gaining speed. They exchanged shocked looks. Peck closed his eyes in theatrical mortification.

“ _Oh, for-_!”

“I’m outta here” Winston burst, all but throwing the remains of his hamburger into the trash bin and running for the door.

“Yeah, I gotta… be… elsewhere… not here” Peter said, following suit, Peck on his heels and Ray on Peck’s heels and Kylie behind him.

“Hear, hear” she called, looking very pink and even more mortified.

“I hope you know this is completely unacceptable by work space laws” Peck said.

“Tell you what- why don’t you take it up to _them_?”

Somewhere upstairs, there was a sound that they all could have sworn was a stiffled moan.

“...I need a drink”

“Don’t we all?”

* * *

**The end.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... what's left to say?
> 
> I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but this is one story that, at some point, pretty much came out of me like it was gonna kill me if it didn't- and then I had to make it somehow make sense, as it sometimes didn't, having come out either raw and rambling or just unpolished. It was following a period of great stress, self-doubt, and even self-destructive thoughts, so maybe that was the thing. Either way it's here, it's out and, hopefully, someone out there read it and had a great time doing so.
> 
> I'd also like to thank Trivialqueen, WickedMusic96 and ArtsyPaige for having, each at some point, been exposed to the WIPs that eventually turned into this fic (And not having blocked me on the spot). I hope the finished product is still to your liking, despite the changes, cuts and additions I inevitably had to make.
> 
> Finally, thank You, who read this far. I hope it was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write (...sometimes, anyway). There really needs to be more fanworks for Ghostbusters (And for Janine/Egon, cough cough, who said that) so, with any luck, I'll be able to return the favor and read your work on the tag at some point.
> 
> Until then.


End file.
